Kurdish leaders insisted Tuesday that they do not plan to secede from Iraq even though they want the new Iraqi constitution to provide the group the right to self-determination in order to protect themselves from potential future problems. The issues of self-determination, the role of Islam, federalism and the use of oil and other natural [...]

Indicted former Rwandan government official Michel Bagaragaza surrendered himself to officials from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on Tuesday. Bagaragaza has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide and complicity in genocide and is alleged to have ordered his own subordinates and others to kill hundreds of Tutsi civilian refugees seeking [...]

The Russian government approved a resolution Tuesday that authorized its formal withdrawal from the Russian-Estonian border agreements, the next-to-last phase that Russia must complete in order to satisfy international legal standards on the withdrawal from a treaty. The Russian-Estonian border treaties, agreed to in May 2005 , became a source of contention between the two [...]

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday that he intends to push for the elimination of a statute of limitations for future human rights violations in South Korea, but said that he isn't seeking to introduce retroactive punishment for acts already outside the statute of limitations, which bars prosecution of government officials after a certain [...]

A Lusaka magistrate court has held that the Zambian Director of Public Prosecutions has sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial against Patriotic Front President Michael Sata on espionage charges. Sata's trial will be held before the Zambian High Court, and will focus on his alleged incitement of explosions caused by workers at the Konkola [...]

Angolan Supreme Court Justice Caetano de Sousa has been elected by the Angolan Parliament to serve as the head of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) tasked with supervising preparations for elections scheduled for the first half of 2006. Angola has been in a constant state of civil war for the past 30 years and both [...]

A special session of the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals meeting at the University of Utah Wednesday will hear arguments about a Utah state law that prohibits the desecration of the US flag . Several different individuals are challenging the law's constitutionality, alleging that Salt Lake County officials acted against the US Supreme Court [...]

US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has ordered government lawyers to restore redacted portions of their brief concerning the release of further photographs and video of Abu Ghraib Prison after a closed session review of the relevant information. Hellerstein said Monday after the review that he "generally ruled in favor of public disclosure" and that [...]

Israeli police officer Yuval Avargil testified Monday in the ongoing trial against Sami Al-Arian , a former University of South Florida professor that has been charged , along with three other men, with raising money for and supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad in conducting suicide bombings in Israel. Avargil gave graphic testimony concerning the after-effects of [...]

National Guard acting adjutant general Brigadier Gen. John R. Alexander has said that a confidential report released Monday proves that the National Guard unit known as the Information Synchronization, Knowledge Management and Intelligence Fusion program was not spying on civilians, as ACLU activists and California state Sen. Joseph Dunn previously alleged . Alexander says that [...]