New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) and State Insurance Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo announced Wednesday that Silverstein Properties , which owns a 99-year lease of the World Trade Center site, has settled all outstanding insurance claims with seven insurance companies at a price of $2 billion dollars. Silverstein agreed to yield its claim that the [...]

Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz ruled Thursday that charges against three US soldiers for homicide and a "crime against the international community" in the 2004 death in Iraq of cameraman Jose Couso should stand, despite the appeal of Spanish prosecutors on behalf of the soldiers that the death was an "accident of war." A US military [...]

United Nations inspectors met with Sudanese officials Thursday in the first steps of a UN investigation into human rights abuses by the Sudanese government in Darfur . The seven-person team arrived in Sudan Wednesday and began their inspection in the Darfur region with a goal of creating a series of steps that the Sudanese government [...]

The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) said Wednesday that a controversial 700-mile fence along the US-Mexican border may violate the 1970 Boundary Treaty , which resolved all pending boundary differences between the United States and Mexico. Sally Spener, spokesperson for the IBWC, said that impermeable fences on US territory but between existing rivers and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday that a federal judge presiding over the criminal tax fraud prosecution of accounting firm KPMG improperly exercised ancillary jurisdiction over a state law contract claim brought against KPMG by 16 former partners and employees of KPMG and vacated the district judge's order "as beyond [...]

Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu and international NGO Oxfam Thursday called on developing nations to submit proposals for a conventional weapons convention to the United Nations . Tutu urged developing nations especially to submit proposals for the convention, saying that trade in conventional weapons, especially small arms, "is the modern slave trade" and that developing nations [...]

Chinese government authorities detained 28 people for either their alleged role in riots in southwestern China over the weekend or communicating information concerning the riots, according to reports from Xinhua, China's state media agency. Xinhua said that an estimated 300 to 3000 farmers discontented with efforts by local government officials to more strictly enforce China's [...]

Suspended Romanian President Trian Basescu was reinstated Wednesday after the Romanian Constitutional Court certified results of a weekend referendum where 74 percent of voters rejected Basescu's impeachment . Basescu was suspended in April by a 322-108 vote in the Romanian Parliament after the prime minister made accusations that Basescu was involved in suspicious multi-million-dollar energy [...]

The government of Burundi and the United Nations (UN) agreed Wednesday to establish a tribunal to try those accused of war crimes during the nation's 12-year civil war , according to the UN. Burundi has also agreed to create a truth and reconciliation commission. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said the government [...]

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine limited the president's power to appoint and dismiss members of local judiciaries on Wednesday. The ruling affirmed that of the country's High Justice Council . In Ukraine, local judges and their deputies are first appointed by the Ukrainian Supreme Court. The president then has the power to approve or dismiss [...]