The Canadian Federal Court ruled in two separate opinions Thursday that media comments by Quebec Justice John Gomery , who led the inquiry into the sponsorship scandal involving the Liberal Party and the administration of former prime minister Jean Chrétien , indicated bias against Chrétien and his chief of staff Jean Pelletier . The court [...]

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer promised in an open letter Thursday that he would push for Austria to hold national referenda in deciding whether to accept future modifications of the EU reform treaty , properly known as the Treaty of Lisbon . The announcement came two weeks after Irish voters rejected the reform treaty in a [...]

A German court Friday ruled that a sports utility vehicle manufactured in China bore an unacceptable resemblance to a model manufactured by German automaker BMW , ordering the SUV's importers to stop sales of the infringing SUV, destroy all remaining cars, and pay compensatory damages to BMW. China Automobile said it would appeal the ruling [...]

Unidentified assailants Thursday shot and killed a top Iraqi judge while he was traveling on a Baghdad highway. Kamel al-Shewaili was the president of the al-Rasafah Court of Appeal, one of two appeals courts in Baghdad, and presided over criminal cases for the city's eastern district. Reuters has more. Voices of Iraq has local coverage. [...]

Hearings to confirm war crimes charges against two former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leaders began at the International Criminal Court (ICC) Friday. Germain Katanga is accused of using child soldiers and orchestrating violence against women; former Nationalist and Integrationist Front leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is accused of planning and carrying out an attack [...]

Banu Altunbasof, the Sudan head of international aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) , was ejected from the country's Darfur region Thursday, after authorities said that she blocked state investigations into alleged MSF transgressions. The Sudanese government has long alleged that aid agencies have falsely accused the government of human rights abuses in Darfur for [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Thursday sharply criticized Zimbabwean political groups for violence surrounding the country's ongoing presidential elections and said that mediation efforts should be based on the need for accountability and justice. Members of both the ruling ZANU PF party and occasionally the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) commit [...]

Controversial US interrogation policies outlined in two 2002 and 2003 memoranda were reviewed by top Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft , according to two former Bush administration officials testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday. The documents advised the Department of Defense (DOD) that the military could use a [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California Wednesday granted a motion to enforce a previous settlement agreement between two social networking websites, Facebook and ConnectU . The ruling effectively ends the two companies' ongoing legal battle concerning ownership of source code forming the basis of Facebook. The two sides [...]

East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta Friday declined what he described as an offer to become the next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, despite having told parliament last week that he had accepted the position. Ramos-Horta said he changed his mind because resigning from the presidency would force new elections to be held within 90 [...]