Letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the General Assembly, United Nations, March 24, 2005 . Excerpt: In particular, the revelations in 2004 of sexual exploitation and abuse by a significant number of United Nations peacekeeping personnel in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have done great harm to the name of peacekeeping. Such [...]

AP is reporting that the Florida Supreme Court has refused to overturn Judge George Greer's order of earlier this afternoon blocking the Florida Department of Children and Familes from taking custody of Terri Schiavo. Read the order .

The former head of security for fallen Russian oil giant Yukos has been convicted of murder and attempted murder in a Russian court, the first conviction among former Yukos executives being held in Russia. Lawyers for Alexei Pachugin, who was accused of carrying out murders for Leonid Nevzlin , Yukos' second-largest shareholder, have announced that [...]

The Federal Election Commission took tentative first steps in regulating Internet political activity Thursday by calling for public input on limited campaign guidelines for the medium. While commissioners expressed a reluctance to regulate online speech in any way, draft guidelines issued by the commission suggest making campaign finance rules and other regulations found in other [...]

France said Thursday that it will delay a UN Security Council vote on its proposed resolution that would ensure that any Darfur war crimes trials are held at the International Criminal Court . France drafted its resolution to counter the US position in favor of establishing an ad-hoc tribunal operating from Tanzania. The delay puts [...]

Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board Thursday denied the asylum claim of Jeremy Hinzman , the US soldier who deserted his unit before being deployed to Iraq and subsequently fled to Canada, saying that Hinzman did not make a convincing argument that he faced persecution in the US. Hinzman had accused the US of committing war [...]

AP is reporting that a Florida state judge has ruled that Governor Jeb Bush and Florida's social services agency do not have any legal grounds for taking protective custody of Terri Schiavo . 2:56 PM ET – Greer said in his ruling that "The requested intervention … appears to be brought for the purpose of [...]

In Thursday's environmental law brief, a Jakarta Indonesia court has ruled that the travel ban on the six Newmont Mining Co. executives that has been in place since last October is illegal. Despite the ruling, the executives are still being detained in the country as objects of an ongoing criminal case into alleged pollution of [...]

Chile's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet cannot be prosecuted over the killing of his predecessor as Chile's army chief, General Carlos Prats . The ruling reverses a lower court ruling that had stripped Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution in the 1974 car bombing assassination of Prats. The Supreme Court reversed the [...]

ABC WFTS-TV in Tampa is reporting that the Florida Department of Children and Families may have lost an opportunity – perhaps its only opportunity – to take Terri Schiavo into protective custody and restore her feeding tube contrary to a court order. Early Thursday morning around 8 AM the Department appealed Judge George Greer's injunction [...]