The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit  on Wednesday ordered  a district court to accept guilty pleas entered by three illegal aliens facing immigration charges. The defendants had entered unconditional guilty pleas to charges that they re-entered the country after having been removed previously, a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) . [...]

 The Supreme Court of India temporarily reinstated a government ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) on Wednesday, reversing the holding of the Delhi High Court , which had just lifted the ban on Tuesday. The lower court had reasoned that because the government had failed to supply any new evidence of SIMI's involvement in illegal [...]

The Iraqi Parliament has failed to agree on a draft election bill prior to adjourning for the summer on Wednesday. Kurdish legislators have strongly opposed the bill's proposal to establish a provincial council in Kirkuk made up of equal numbers of Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmeni representatives. Kurds constitute the majority in the area, and have [...]

The Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled Tuesday that the law establishing the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) is appropriate under the country's current constitution . Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojamarn Shinawatra had filed a constitutional challenge to the NCCC statue, arguing that the law was an unreasonable violation of their rights [...]

The Venezuelan Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a list blocking 272 political candidates from running for office because of suspected corruption. Critics had argued that the list was unconstitutional because many of those included had not been convicted of any crime. Some also alleged that the list focused on opponents of current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez [...]

Iran has commuted the sentences of four people scheduled to be executed by stoning and has suspended the use of the punishment, local media reported Wednesday. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, the head of the country's judiciary, had originally placed a moratorium on the punishment in 2002, but nine people were given the sentence in July for [...]

Serbia's Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor indicted two war crimes suspects Tuesday in connection with the 1992 killing of 700 Muslim civilians in the town of Zvornik. Former Zvornik mayor Branko Grujic and former local defense chief Branko Popovic are accused of using their positions to detain and kill civilians. In 2005, prosecutors charged [...]

Sudan Justice Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said Wednesday that he had named one primary prosecutor and three assistants to investigate and try war crimes suspects from the country's Darfur region . The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands currently handles such proceedings, but if Sudanese domestic courts are created with appropriate human rights and accountability [...]

A military group staged a coup in Mauritania early Wednesday, detaining President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waqef . The coup's apparent leader, Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, also backed a 2005 coup that removed then-President Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Taya . Aziz had previously supported Abdallahi, but the two split after [...]

Judge Royce Lamberth  of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday ordered the unsealing of hundreds of documents related to the FBI's probe into the 2001 anthrax attacks . Among other papers, the released documents include 14 search warrants issued against government scientist and biodefense researcher Bruce Ivins , who had [...]