UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour wrapped up an official visit to China Friday, calling for China to release data about its use of capital punishment and urging cooperation with international standards. "It is not appropriate to say: 'We are doing this our own way'" she said, citing optimism for improvement but objecting [...]

160 US law professors have signed a letter declaring their opposition to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts . The group of professors expressed concern about Roberts' record, claiming he favors expansion of government power and reduction of individual rights: The record made available to date suggests that Judge Roberts holds a limited view of Congress' [...]

Youssef Hmimssa , a Moroccan man whose testimony was at the center of a terrorism trial that later unraveled, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on Thursday on charges of credit card fraud and visa misuse. Hmimssa was in the US illegally and has lived in five countries under as many as a [...]

President Bush has used a recess appointment to fill an opening at the Justice Department that was stalled in the Senate, naming attorney Alice S. Fisher to the top post in the DOJ's criminal division. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) had blocked Fisher's nomination in order to question a government agent who named Fisher in an [...]

Intel filed an answer in federal court on Thursday to an anti-trust suit brought by rival computer chip maker Advanced Micro Designs (AMD) , denying allegations of anti-competitive practices and blaming AMD themselves for lagging behind in the market. AMD filed suit in late June , claiming that Intel pressured 38 companies into using their [...]

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Russian UN official Vadim Kouznetsov Thursday on money laundering charges. An FBI official said the still-sealed charges against Kouznetsov, who heads a UN budget oversight panel, are only remotely connected to the defunct UN Oil-for-Food program . Kouznetsov will be arraigned Friday in a federal court in Manhattan. [...]

At least 5,000 Shiite Muslims held a rally Friday in the Southern Iraqi city of Basra, in a show of support for the draft Iraqi constitution . Friday's rally follows smaller Sunni demonstrations held earlier this week to protest against the constitution. The Shiite demonstration was organized by Iraq's two largest Shiite political groups, the [...]

In an emergency session Thursday night, the US Senate passed a bill to provide $10.5 billion in emergency relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina . The measure was approved by voice vote with only four Senators present on the floor. Read Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's floor statement . An identical bill is expected [...]

The Iraqi Special Tribunal will put Saddam Hussein on trial in mid-October, a government official said Thursday. Hussein will face charges related to the 1982 killing of 150 Shiites in the village of Dujail "between Oct. 16 and at the latest Oct. 20," just days after Iraq will hold a referendum to approve the draft [...]

Press conference with federal officials from the US Justice Department, National Guard Bureau, Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, US Coast Guard and FEMA. September 1, 2005. Excerpts: …the Department of Justice, working with state and local officials, will do everything that we can do to assure law and order in the affected areas. We [...]