The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that the US Congress should "correct its mistaken ways" and "stop interfering in the normal commercial exchanges" between the two nations in response to House objections to a $18.5 billion bid by the China National Offshore Oil Company Ltd. (CNOOC) to purchase US oil giant Unocal [...]

Lawyers for the state of Israel have argued in court papers filed with the Israeli High Court that moving a portion of the fully-constructed Security Fence as requested by Palestinian villagers is precluded by cost, said to be the first public admission by Israel that the route of the fence was not solely based on [...]

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said in a statement Tuesday that she "welcomed" the endorsement of an impeachment complaint against her, eager for a chance to refute allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 national election. A controversial audio tape allegedly documents Arroyo planning to fix the election. Her husband has gone into voluntary exile after [...]

A member of Swaziland's Parliament says that King Mswati III has sent the country's proposed Constitution , adopted by the House of Assembly and Senate in June back to the country's parliament for further debate. While the document maintains broad powers for the king, he requested that parliament review a clause naming Christianity as Swaziland's [...]

In an unusual move sidestepping parliament, the French Cabinet Monday removed the legal difference between "legitimate" children, born to married parents, and "natural" children, born to unmarried parents. The distinction had been established in the original 1804 French Napoleonic code. In the future, as opposed to having to specially register as a new parent, unmarried [...]

Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that allegations that he is the man in a photo taken during the 1979 hostage crisis are "baseless", according to report by the state IRNA news agency. An advisor to outgoing Iranian president Mohammad Khatamihas earlier denied the allegations as well. "The dissemination of baseless information by Western countries [...]

Leading Monday's international brief, Sudanese Speaker of the National Assembly Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir has announced that the Sudanese Parliament will approve the draft interim constitution scheduled for final reading on Wednesday, July 6. The Sudan Parliament adopted a resolution Sunday presented by Chairman Ismail al-Haj Musa of the Interim Constitution Formulation Committee calling for the [...]

US Army Reserve PFC Lynndie England , accused of abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, faces new court-martial proceedings, including arraignment and a pre-trial hearing beginning Thursday at Fort Hood. On May 4, a military judge rejected England's guilty plea to charges of conspiracy, maltreatment of prisoners, and indecent acts, because her story could [...]

Rwandan legal representatives arguing Monday at the beginnng of public hearings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague dismissed allegations that Rwandan troops had committed human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and argued the world court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. Congo filed suit with the [...]

The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna begins a five-day conference Monday to consider toughening international laws governing the security of nuclear power stations. Representatives from over 100 countries will discuss amending the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material , a treaty that applies to the transport, domestic storage and peaceful use of [...]