Former WorldCom accounting executive Betty Vinson was sentenced Friday to five months in jail with an additional five months under house arrest for her role in the $11 billion fraud at the telecommunications giant that resulted in its bankruptcy. Vinson initially pleaded guilty to fraud in October 2002 and later aided the government's prosecution of [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday announced a planned summit meeting of Australian state leaders and security advisors next month to mull over ways to reduce Australia's vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Howard is debating whether terror laws should be strengthened following comments by some Australian Muslim clerics expressing support for Islamic jihadists attacking the [...]

The Pentagon has released 32 new or recently uncensored images of the coffins of US soldiers and agreed to quickly fulfill any future Freedom of Information Act requests for images of US war casualties. The release came as a result of a lawsuit filed by University of Delaware professor Ralph Begleiter , who was aided [...]

Iraqi leaders Friday put off a high-level constitutional meeting for two days while the Iraqi Kurdistan National Assembly convened in an emergency session and consultations between major players continued. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had called the constitutional summit in order to break a deadlock regarding issues such as federalism and the potential influence of Islamic [...]

Updating an earlier story, the US is now reportedly engaged in discussions with three countries about the transfer of detainees currently being held in Guantanamo Bay back to their home jurisdictions. A US agreement with Saudi Arabia and Yemen for the turnover of prisoners similar to that reached with Afghanistan would reduce the prisoner population [...]

At an emergency summit Thursday, African Union member states reaffirmed their commitment to a plan for UN Security Council reform that rejects a competing plan by the G4 nations . African states voted 46 to 9 to continue to press for two permanent seats on the Security Council with veto power, a plan that would [...]

US ambassador Joseph LeBaron was called Thursday to Mauritania's foreign ministry in Nouakchott by the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, a militia group that has taken control of the West African nation. LeBaron met with leaders of the military coup that ousted President Maaouiya Ould Taya and called on them to return constitutional rule [...]

Mahmud Faruq Brent, a Southern Maryland resident, was charged in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York Thursday with aiding and abetting a terrorist organization. According to prosecutors, Brent openly bragged about his decision to attend a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and continued to pledge assistance to radical Islam. The [...]

In a report issued Friday, human rights group Amnesty International claimed that the abuses currently taking place in China are directly related to the country's preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games to be held in Beijing. The group pointed out that 3,400 people were put to death in China in 2004, more than all other [...]

The Indonesian government began its criminal pollution case Friday against Denver-based gold giant Newmont Mining Corp. and its American regional chief executive Richard Ness. The government claims that studies prove Newmont placed arsenic and mercury into the waters of Buyat Bay , but the World Health Organization found no such evidence, and Newmont claims its [...]