Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) Monday filed bar complaints against two former US Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, alleging that Michael J. Elston and Esther Slater McDonald improperly considered applicants' political affiliations when reviewing applications for DOJ jobs and summer internships. Both McDonald and Elston were named in a June report released by the [...]

Two Swiss nationalist parties gathered enough signatures on their initiative against the construction of minarets to force a national referendum on whether the country's constitution should be amended to ban the structures, the Swiss government announced Tuesday. Officials for the right-wing Swiss People's Party (UDC) and the Federal Democratic Union (UDF) introduced the initiative in [...]

Thailand's opposition Democrat party Wednesday announced it would launch an impeachment bid against Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej after a series of court decisions against key officials in the government and Samak's People Power Party (PPP). On Wednesday, the Thai Constitutional Court dismissed Thai Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsup from office after finding he had [...]

A former Chinese anti-corruption prosecutor was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for torturing to death a government official in May 2007. Xiong Zhengliang was convicted of killing Liang Jiping, a deputy director of a government electricity utility, while Liang was in custody for allegedly accepting bribes. Xiong and two deputies beat and deprived Liang of [...]

A pair of Bosnian Serb cousins went to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Wednesday on charges of murder, extermination and torture. Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic are accused of crimes against humanity related to their actions as part of a paramilitary unit during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, including several [...]

The US Senate Wednesday voted 69-28 to approve a bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies participating in the NSA warrantless surveillance program . Earlier in the day, the Senate had rejected three proposed amendments to the bill that would have limited immunity. The Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment , [...]

Israeli rights group Yesh Din published an update Tuesday to its 2006 report detailing the lack of investigations and prosecutions of Israeli settlers who commit crimes against Palestinians . According to the report, Israeli police have issued indictments in less than 10 percent of complaints filed by Palestinians monitored by the group, and most of [...]

Attorney General Michael Mukasey denied Wednesday that proposed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) guidelines would allow agents to open terror investigations based solely on a person's race, religion, or ethnicity. Testifying at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee , Mukasey said that travel to foreign terror "hot spots" would be one of many factors [...]

The chief judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia said Tuesday that the US government should make detention appeals by Guantanamo detainees a top priority, and devote all necessary resources to ensuring that the appeals reach trial in a timely manner. Judge Thomas F. Hogan  made the comments at the first hearing concerning [...]

Judges at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) Wednesday denied the bail request of former Khmer Rouge minister for social affairs Ieng Thirith , finding that she could be criminally culpable for her actions and that she is still dangerous to society. The ECCC ordered Ieng Thirith into provisional detention in November [...]