Pakistani ministers and officials scrambled Sunday as a second deadline for restoring judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf in November loomed with little prospect of being met. An aide to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has pressed hard for the reinstatement , was quoted by AP as saying that an "acceptable solution" would be [...]

The military junta of Myanmar held a national referendum on a draft constitution Saturday despite sharp international criticism for going ahead with the poll after a devastating cyclone last weekend left at least 60,000 people dead or missing. Voting in the hardest-hit areas has been delayed until later this month, but state media encouraged citizens [...]

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori , currently on trial for human rights violations during his three terms in office from 1990-2000, is showing lack of respect for the court and the trial process by his courtroom behavior, Peruvian prosecutors said Friday. Earlier this week Fujimori burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter after hearing military [...]

A committee of Japan's House of Representatives Friday approved a measure easing legal restrictions on placing Japanese military technology in space ahead of a vote of the full House of Representatives expected next week. The House of Councillors is expected to pass the bill as well. Lawmakers say that current rules, established in 1969, hamper [...]

Talks between the leaders of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in London Friday failed to produce an agreement on a draft resolution for reinstating judges ousted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last year, but party members pledged to continue negotiations. A panel convened last week pursuant to an initial [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments Friday in the appeal by former USA Today reporter Toni Locy against sanctions imposed on her for refusing to disclose government sources who provided information about former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven J. Hatfill . In a March ruling, US [...]

Microsoft announced Friday that it has filed an appeal with the European Court of First Instance in hopes that it will annul the record fine of 899 million euros ($1.3 billion). The penalty was imposed after Microsoft failed to comply with a 2004 landmark ruling requiring the software giant to share technical information with competitors [...]

European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering Thursday slammed a bid by Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya to have the country's ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) legally dissolved for not respecting Turkey's strict secular principles. Poettering said it would be "absurd" for the Constitutional Court of Turkey to close the party as it had come to [...]

The US Department of Justice indicated Thursday that the Pentagon will review the "enemy combatant" status of Afghan Guantanamo detainee and US federal court litigant Haji Bismullah in light of what was referred to as "new evidence," according to SCOTUSblog. The notification came in a motion asking the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the [...]

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that a number of current Guantanamo Bay detainees would pose a new threat to the US if they were returned to their home countries. Of the 500 inmates who have been released from the detention facility, Gates said Pentagon data shows that between 5-10% of detainees "return to [...]