Several civil rights organizations, including the University of Chicago Law School's MacArthur Justice Center and the ACLU of Illinois announced Monday that they have asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate allegations that as many as 20 Chicago police detectives used torture to obtain confessions from black suspects between 1971 and 1992. According [...]

An immigration judge held a hearing Monday to determine if former anti-Castro CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles should be granted asylum to the US after illegally entering through Mexico earlier this year. Venezuelan officials have requested the Cuban citizen's extradition to their country so that he can face charges regarding his alleged involvement in the [...]

KPMG agreed to pay $456 million Monday in a settlement that will allow the accounting firm to avoid federal criminal prosecution for selling abusive tax shelters enabling wealthy individuals to evade income tax liabilities during 1996-2002. KPMG admitted the firm attempted to hide fraudulent tax shelters from the Internal Revenue Service and earlier this year [...]

An Iraqi judge investigating charges against Saddam Hussein met with Kurdish officials Monday to gather information about the 1988 poison gas attack against the northern Iraq village of Halabja. The investigating judge from the Iraqi Special Tribunal visited Halabja in order to "inspect and collect information regarding the use of weapons of mass destruction against [...]

The Federal Elections Commission has asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling that the FEC must write tougher rules for the enforcement of campaign financing laws. The FEC filed a petition for a rehearing en banc Monday, asking the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to reconsider its decision in Shays [...]

Prince Talal bin Abdel-Aziz , a half-brother of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has called for political reform in Saudi Arabia, including the introduction of a constitution and a "quasi-legislative council." He told Radio Monte Carlo that Arab rulers should introduce change before they are required to by political uprisings, which happened recently in Lebanon [...]

Israel's High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction Sunday prohibiting the destruction of 20 synagogues in the now-evacuated Gaza Strip until further notice. The order was issued in response to requests made by a former rabbi in the Gaza strip . State prosecutors Monday asked the High Court to rescind the order and reject [...]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Sunday that his nation would take legal action against Christian evangelist Pat Robertson and could seek his extradition to Venezuela, after Robertson suggested his assassination last week. In a televised speech, Chavez said Venezuela could have Robertson extradited under international treaties and if the Bush Administration did not take action, [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected a proposal Monday that Muslim girls be forbidden from wearing headscarves in public schools, saying that banning headscarves only would be impractical and banning headscarves only would be inconsistent. The suggestion was made by two members of Howard's Liberal Party , Bronwyn Bishop and Sophie Panopoulos , who called [...]

Iran rejected conditional negotiations with Europe concerning its nuclear program Sunday, instead voicing interest in talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency . Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also said the United States would not be included in any negotiations . On Friday, top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani called for additional members of the [...]