Senior Israeli Defense Forces officers, under instruction from Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz , asked the Israeli Supreme Court Tuesday to reconsider last week's ruling banning the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields . Mofaz stated that the current ruling will be enforced until another hearing is held, when he will personally present his arguments [...]

US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee watched a videotaped confession Tuesday where Ahmed Omar Abu Ali , accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush, said that he was motivated by hatred of American support for Israel. Lee is currently considering a defense motion to throw out the confession; Abu Ali's lawyers say the confession was [...]

The British government introduced a tough new anti-terror bill in the House of Commons Wednesday, bringing forward measures anticipated since soon after the July 7 London bombings that killed 52 commuters. Among other things, the Terrorism Bill authorizes detention of suspects for 90 days without charge. The permissible detention period was extended to three months [...]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has released information from 126 clergy personnel files that shows that the archdiocese moved priests accused of sexual abuse between therapy and new assignments for over 75 years. The documents, released late Tuesday as part of a settlement in a case with over 500 accusers, also show that [...]

California's Fourth District Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday to determine whether physicians can refuse to provide fertility treatments to a homosexual women based upon their religious beliefs. In a case expected to eventually be heard by the Supreme Court, Drs. Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton contend they refused to artificially inseminate Guadalupe Benitez because [...]

US officials outlined procedures for the upcoming trial of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in a special background briefing at the State Department Tuesday. The officials, speaking "on background" because the trial is an Iraqi process , said Hussein would appear before three judges of the Iraqi Special Tribunal beginning October 19 on charges relating [...]

Human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Wednesday called on US federal and state lawmakers to change mandatory sentencing schemes under which thousands of juvenile prisoners face the prospect of life sentences without parole. A new joint report entitled The Rest of Their Lives says that some 2225 prisoners are incarcerated indefinitely in [...]

In his first media briefing, incoming UK lord chief justice Lord Phillips has warned the British government to back off pressuring the judiciary to enforce its own views of the law in terror-related or other cases. Speaking Tuesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, he observed, "Occasionally one feels that an individual politician [...]

A Russian military court in the North Caucasus region has found two Russian soldiers not guilty of murdering three civilians during operations in the war-torn region of Chechnya . Interior Force officers Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev were charged with killing three Chechen construction workers in January 2003 . Investigators said the Khudyakov-Arakcheyev reconnaissance unit [...]

A US congressional panel said Tuesday that China had made no significant progress in human rights or law reform over the past year despite announced efforts in those areas. The 2005 Annual Report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China noted ongoing abuses of political and religious rights and freedom of expression, such as harassing and [...]