Twenty-one families who said that they intended to sue the state of Virginia for negligence in connection with the April 16, 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech have agreed to a tentative settlement worth $11 million, lawyers representing the families said Thursday. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said that the details of the settlement would remain [...]

Representatives from the 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Thursday criticized the human rights record of the United Kingdom , including the government's treatment of terror suspects and prisoners, as the body continued its new Universal Periodic Review of rights practices around the world. During debate, several countries expressed concern about [...]

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) may attempt to amend the country's constitution if necessary to block a legal challenge brought by Turkish prosecutors seeking to disband the party, Turkish Prime Minister and AKP leader Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday. Prosecutors petitioned the Constitutional Court of Turkey to disband AKP in March, accusing the party [...]

Eight Zimbabwean election officials accused of under-counting votes for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party during the March 29 presidential election appeared before magistrates in provincial courts Wednesday. Independent observers say that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate Morgan Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe, but Mugabe and his Zimbabwe [...]

The Supreme Court of India Thursday upheld a governmental program reserving seats at India's top state schools for members of lower castes , but ruled that wealthy lower caste families should not be permitted to take advantage of the program. The program holds 27 percent of enrollment at state-run professional schools for lower caste persons. [...]

Ohio resident David Tuason was indicted Wednesday for allegedly threatening to blow up the US Supreme Court building and attack black men, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas . Tuason was charged with six counts of mailing threatening communications and two counts of transmitting threatening interstate communications. AP has more. Threats of violence against judges [...]

The investigating officer for the Multi-National Force-Iraq Wednesday granted a postponement of the Article 32 hearing for civilian contractor Alaa "Alex" Mohammad Ali. Ali, who holds dual Iraqi-Canadian citizenship, is charged with aggravated assault for stabbing another contractor in February, and is the first civilian contractor charged by the military since it was granted jurisdiction [...]

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf appealed to anti-government lawyers on Thursday to not "spread anarchy," a day after a clash between opposing groups of lawyers in Karachi prompted widespread rioting and led to at least 11 deaths. Lawyers supporting Musharraf who gathered to protest other lawyers' beating of former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi [...]

A criminal court in Afghanistan is trying detainees previously held by the US detainees at Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay and is relying primarily on allegations and evidence provided by the US military, the New York Times reported Thursday. Other countries have so far refused to use evidence provided by the US military over [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Kentucky high school student Timothy Morrison against the Boyd County Board of Education over a 2004 policy that banned Morrison and other students from expressing their opposition to homosexuality. Judge Deborah L. Cook , in a 2-1 ruling, said that [...]