The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court announced Monday that the Hague-based court expects its first round of trials to start as early as mid-2006. In connection with this week's meeting of states that have signed the Rome Statute setting up the tribunal, Luis Moreno-Ocampo released a document outlining the court's goals for next [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments in Will v. Hallock where it will decide whether a plaintiff who sued the federal government for an alleged constitutional violation is barred from suing individual government employees for the same conduct. In the case, the Court heard the appeal of Susan Hallock, whose computer software [...]

Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) pleaded guilty Monday to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion and promptly resigned from office. Cunningham admitted to taking $2.4 million in bribes in a case that stemmed from an investigation into the sale of his home and became a wide-ranging probe uncovering [...]

A group of Egyptian jurists known as The Judges Club said in a statement Monday that, due to over 100 irregularities reported by monitoring judges at polling stations, it did not endorse the results of the parliamentary runoff elections. The statement pointed to "aggression and acts of thuggery by supporters of the National Democratic Party [...]

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 [...]