Afghanistan's government said Monday that it believed the US military's punishment for four American soldiers who burned the bodies of two Taliban rebels was "very lenient." The US military said Saturday that the soldiers, who were caught on camera, would face disciplinary action but not criminal charges because their actions were motivated by hygienic concerns. [...]

Hosam Taher Hosam, a Syrian witness who told the UN committee investigating the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri that Syrian and Lebanese officials had a hand in the February 14 assassination said Monday that his testimony was false and that he was bribed by Hariri's son. Hosam, a barber who says he [...]

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has dismissed as "nonsense" allegations by former Iraqi Prime Minister and current parliamentary candidate Iyad Allawi that human rights abuses by Iraqi Shiites are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein's regime. In an interview with the BBC, Talabani said that no comparison can be made between recent reports of [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday summarily reversed a federal appeals court decision that erased the conviction and death sentence of a dual US and British citizen for setting a fire in Ohio that killed a toddler almost 20 years ago. In its per curiam decision , the Court ruled in Bradshaw v. Richey that [...]

Four Ethiopians arrested during violent protests of the country's May elections said Monday that they will begin a hunger strike to voice opposition to their detentions. Three of the detainees are Coalition for Unity and Democracy party officials, including the party's leader Hailu Shawel, and one is a human rights activist. The four claim their [...]

Britain's Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has asked Home Secretary Charles Clarke to approve an investigation into the way Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair handled the July subway shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes. De Menezes was killed by police when he was mistakenly thought to be a suicide bomber connected to the [...]

A top European Union justice official said Monday that EU voting rights could be suspended for any of the 25 bloc nations that are found to have operated secret CIA detention centers for US terror detainees . EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the EU treaty explains that principles of liberty, democracy, [...]

China's former minister of land and natural resources, Tian Fengshan , was charged Monday with accepting bribes of nearly 5 million yuan, or $619,000. Tian has been in custody since 2004 when he was removed from office after the former director of a provincial environmental protection bureau, Wang Shenyi, exposed the corruption. Wang has also [...]

Senators in the Parliament of Australia tabled a report Monday recommending changes to proposed anti-terror laws . The current proposal permits suspects to be detained up to 14 days without charge and imposes controls on suspects, including electronic shackles. The report from the Senate's Legal and Constitutional Committee follows hearings on the bill and calls [...]

Aung San Suu Kyi , the detained pro-democracy leader of Myanmar – formerly Burma – has had her house arrest extended for an unconfirmed time period by the country’s military government, according to a Monday statement from the National League for Democracy (NLD) , her political party. Her detention without trial for 10 of the [...]