Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will field candidates in the country's parliamentary elections to be held next month. MDC contends, however, that the polls will not be fair and free and will participate under protest:More than ever the electoral playing field remains uneven and unequal. Rule of law concerns have [...]

A group of conservative European Union lawmakers from eastern Europe have proposed an EU ban on communist symbols, including the red star and the hammer and sickle. The ban would match a proposed EU ban on the display of Nazi symbols. Members of the European Parliament from Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic [...]

Retired Serbian General Vladimir Lazarevic turned himself in to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Thursday to face war crimes charges for his role in the violence in Kosovo in the late 1990s. Lazarevic had remained in hiding for 15 months after being indicted by the war crimes tribunal in October 2003 along [...]

Conservative groups have applauded several legal reforms and initiatives proposed by President Bush Wednesday night in his State of the Union address , in particular his renewed support for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and his call for restrictions on abortion and stem-cell research. Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family [...]

British prosecutors Thursday dropped the remaining charge against Lance Cpl. Darren Larkin, one of three UK soldiers on trial for charges of abusing Iraqi captives. Prosecutors said they could not prove that Larkin was the soldier who forced two of the captives to strip and simulate sex acts after a witness said he could not [...]

Six of Iraq's 18 provinces reported partial election returns Thursday that showed the United Iraqi Alliance , a Shiite party, with strong results in the National Assembly race. The Alliance had been endorsed by the country's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani , and led all other parties in the six reporting provinces. [...]

In Thursday's international brief, Israel has announced its approval of a plan to release as many as 900 detained Palestinians in coming weeks. The details of the exact number of prisoners to be released, and the conditions for their release, have yet to be determined, but the announcement was accompanied by a pledge to begin [...]

Ulster County Court Judge J. Michael Bruhn reinstated 24 criminal misdemeanor charges against New Paltz Village Mayor Jason West late Wednesday for marrying 24 gay couples in February 2004. West was charged with the misdemeanor counts last year, but the charges were dropped when a town court judge ruled that there were constitutional problems with [...]

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy has reportedly left the country after the country's parliament stripped him of immunity, exposing him to liability for defamation. Cambodia's National Assembly Thursday achieved the two-thirds majority needed to overturn rules protecting Rainsy and two other members of the Sam Rainsy Party . As a result of the decision, the [...]

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says he expects to see "harsh judgments" of the UN in an interim report to be released Thursday on the purported mismanagement of the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program. Annan set up a blue-ribbon inquiry chaired by former US federal reserve chairman Paul Volcker in the wake of allegations of fraud [...]