Eight men appeared in a South African court Friday to face charges of breaking the country's anti-mercenary laws, enforced under the Foreign Military Assistance Act . The South African men were freed in May, along with 53 other suspected mercenaries, from a Zimbabwe jail where they served time for participating in an alleged coup attempt [...]

A Syrian man wanted in connection with the Madrid train bombings appeared in a British court on Friday as Spain requested his extradition to face charges. Moutaz Almallah Dabas was arrested in England last month, accused of running a safe house in Spain and recruiting terrorists. A decision on the extradition proceeding is expected June [...]

Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, senior military commander of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, voiced frustration Thursday at press and rights group portrayals of abuse at the facility. Hood's comments follow a since-retracted Newsweek article describing mistreatment of the Koran and an Amnesty International report calling the prison camp the "gulag of our time." [...]

Jurors began deliberations Thursday in the retrial of former Tyco International Ltd. top executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz. The first proceeding ended in a mistrial last April because of outside pressure on a juror . The two Tyco executives are charged with grand larceny and securities fraud in connection with large bonuses and [...]

Voters in Switzerland will decide in a referendum set for Sunday June 5 whether gay couples should have the right to register as partners and have legal rights similar to as married couples. A recent poll says 67 percent of Swiss voters want the measure approved. If passed, the new law would bring Switzerland in [...]

Republican insiders claim that the Bush administration is preparing to send dozens of new judicial nominations to the Senate for confirmation in an effort to test the bipartisan filibuster deal struck last week by moderates on both sides of the aisle. Under the deal Democrats have pledged not to filibuster nominations except in "extraordinary circumstances," [...]

Maverick Andrei Illarionov , a top economic advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Thursday that the recent conviction of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky for fraud and tax evasion had caused Russia major harm and had dramatically changed the country's political landscape. While the Kremlin denies any political motive in the arrest, trial and 9-year [...]

Three US soldiers attached to Fort Carson , Colorado, have been ordered to stand trial for murder in connection with the death of an Iraqi general . Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, Chief Warrant Officer Jeff L. Williams, and Spc. Jerry Loper are charged with murder, assault, and dereliction of duty during combat actions. On [...]

In a move to end two weeks of protests , Bolivian President Carlos Mesa Thursday signed a decree for an October 16 election to pick members of a constituent assembly to rewrite the Bolivian constitution, acceding to a demand of the country's indigenous majority. A referendum will be held the same day to determine whether [...]

A same-sex marriage bill introduced in the California Assembly appears to be dead after coming up four votes short of approval on its third go-round Thursday, making it likely that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will not get a bill on the subject this year. Bill sponsor Assemblyman Mark Leno complained afterwards that gay and lesbian couples [...]