The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday charged Bank of America with misleading investors regarding billions of dollars paid to Merrill Lynch executives during the acquisition of the firm. The complaint alleges that, during the merger of the companies, the agreement for BOA to allow Merrill Lynch to pay discretionary bonuses was located [...]

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a new four-year term, saying that his election was a vote toward combating poverty, corruption, and discrimination. After praising Ahmadinejad as being a "hard-working and prudent man," Khamenei called for the administration to strictly follow the constitution and to consider the opposition's [...]

Kenya should establish an independent tribunal to prosecute those believed to be responsible for the post-election violence in Kenya in late 2007 and early 2008 instead of relying on its own judicial system, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Monday. The HRW statement comes in response to last week's announcement by the Kenyan Cabinet that it [...]

A Malaysian court charged 29 protesters on Monday for their alleged involvement in weekend rallies against the country's Internal Security Act (ISA) . The law, which allows indefinite detainment without trial, was protested by an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people in Kuala Lumpur, resulting in 589 arrests and the use of tear gas and water [...]

Japan began its first trial under the new lay judge system at the Tokyo District Court on Monday. Katsuyoshi Fujii is on trial for the murder of his neighbor, a South Korean woman. The proceedings began with the selection of six lay judges and three backups by a lottery system after the pool was narrowed [...]

An Iraqi court on Sunday convicted Ali Hassan al-Majid and former foreign minister and deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz of forcing the Kurdish population to be displaced from the northeast of Iraq during the late 1980s. The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal sentenced al-Majid, better known in the western media as "Chemical Ali," and Aziz, along [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday reversed a lower court ruling that had dismissed a discrimination lawsuit filed by more than 200 African-American members of the Capitol Police in 2001. The issue involved whether the officers had adequately pursued mediation through the Office of Compliance before taking legal [...]

The Obama administration is considering creating a maximum security prison that would hold both military and civilian detainees as well as a courtroom to accommodate remaining Guantanamo Bay detainees, according to senior administration officials cited by the Associated Press Sunday. The proposed facility would be operated jointly by the Department of Justice, the Department of [...]

Iran began the trial of 100 detained protesters from the post-election turmoil Saturday as former Iranian president Mohammad Ali Khatami decried the proceedings as a "show trial." Khatami said that the proceedings are against the Iranian constitution and laws and challenged the validity of confessions obtained under stressed circumstances. Khatami also criticized the court for [...]

The Constitutional Tribunal of Portugal ruled 3-2 Friday that same-sex marriage is not a right guaranteed by the Portuguese Constitution , denying an appeal by a lesbian couple claiming sexual orientation discrimination. For the tribunal, the issue was not whether the constitution allows a framework for same=sex marriage, but rather whether the constitution requires the [...]