An Argentine court Thursday released 14 suspects who are accused of committing human rights violations during the country's military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. The court released the men pending bail , saying that the two-year legal deadline for holding them without a conviction had expired. The suspects are said to have committed human rights [...]

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said Thursday that the tribunal may not be able to meet the UN deadline of 2010 for completing its work. Brammertz said that the July arrest of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic may make it necessary for the tribunal to remain open until [...]

An Italian court in Milan Thursday sentenced Parmalat SpA founder Calisto Tanzi to 10 years in prison for his role in the collapse of the Italian dairy giant. Tanzi is the first executive to be sentenced in connection with the €14 billion fraud scheme in 2003 that bankrupted the company. He was convicted of fraudulent [...]

India's upper house of parliament the Rajya Sabha on Thursday approved two anti-terrorism bills in response to the recent Mumbai terror attacks . One bill, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment of 2008 (UAPA) will allow the government to hold terrorism suspects for up to 180 days, and the other bill will set up a National [...]

US President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday named Mary Schapiro as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) . Schapiro is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Financial Industrial Regulatory Authority (FINRA) , an independent regulator of US securities firms. Schapiro's appointment comes at a time of financial turmoil in the US [...]

A jury at the Manchester Crown Court Thursday convicted a British Muslim suspected of al Qaeda involvement on charges of directing terrorism. Rangzieb Ahmed is the first person in the UK to be convicted of this crime under the Terrorism Act of 2006 . Ahmed was allegedly a high-level al Qaeda member with ties to [...]

At least 23 employees of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior have been arrested this week for alleged attempts to rebuild Saddam Hussein's Baath party , a ministry spokesman confirmed Thursday. Speaking at a press conference, Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf said that the officials are being questioned for possible connections to the so-called al-Awda ("The [...]

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and political rival Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday announced legislation establishing a commission tasked with investigating the political and ethnic violence that followed Kenya's disputed December 2007 presidential election . The "Statute for the Special Tribunal" will create a tribunal to hold accountable "persons bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes [...]

A panel of judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled Wednesday that there was no valid immunity deal between war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic and US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke and that even if such an agreement had existed, it would not be valid under international law. Judge [...]

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey recused himself from the investigation of former NASDAQ stock market chairman Bernard Madoff because his son is representing a top official in Madoff's investment firm, US Department of Justice (DOJ) officials said Wednesday. Mark Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor, works as an attorney with the New York law firm of [...]