Former Qwest Communications International CFO Robin Szeliga was charged with insider trading Thursday based on accusations that she improperly earned $410,000 on a stock sale. Szeliga reached a plea agreement and a change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for next month. She is the highest-ranking former official to be charged in the criminal investigation of an [...]

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the city of Seattle had the right to block city streets during violent protests against the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in the city. The court nonetheless reversed and sent part of the lower court's decision back for retrial, saying, "in some instances police conduct [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has announced a halt to the current nationwide police crackdown against illegal and black market merchants and unauthorized dwellings that has allegedly resulted in the eviction and/or detention of tens of thousands of citiziens. Mugabe called in Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo and senior police commanders for [...]

A New York state judge Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by Cablevision alleging illegal activities in the sale of land by the Manhattan Transportation Agency to the New York Jets football team earmarked for a proposed $2 billion stadium that has been advanced as the central venue for New York City's 2012 Olympic bid . The [...]

A US District Judge in Connecticut has ruled that Gillette's claims that its multi-blade M3Power razor lifts hair for a closer shave are "unsubstantiated and inaccurate," granting competitor Schick a preliminary injunction prohibiting television or print ads of the razor. A Gillette spokesperson said that the company has not decided whether to appeal the decision. [...]

Israeli police have detained a group of around 20 young neo-Nazis who originally immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union. The group was discovered after police last month arrested one of the young men , a soldier in the Israeli army, on drug charges and discovered neo-Nazi material on his computer during a search [...]

The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Thursday pushed for Austria to prosecute a suspected Nazi war criminal who recently fled Zagreb, Croatia for the southern Austrian town of Klagenfurt. Milivoj Asner, 92, fled Croatia last year after he discovered he was on the center's top ten list of wanted Nazi collaborators. Center director Efraim Zuroff claims [...]

Serbian officials announced Thursday that eight former Serb paramilitary soldiers have been arrested after a video showing them killing six Bosnian Muslim youths in Srebrenica was viewed at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday at The Hague. The 1995 video was later shown on news broadcasts on at least two Serbian television [...]

US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez called illegal copying of American products the top trade issue between the US and China Thursday at the start of his first official trip to China. In April, the US put China on a "priority watch list" for intellectual property law violations. Gutierrez visited Russia this week to address [...]

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Thursday that she would call a national convention in 2006 to change the constitution and form of government of the Philippines from an American-style system with a president and bicameral legislature to a federal, parliamentary system. Arroyo says the new system would be more effective in enacting reforms. Economists say [...]