At the end of the first US trial of a foreign head of government since that of Panama's Manuel Noriega, a US federal judge in San Francisco Friday sentenced former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko to nine years imprisonment on corruption-related charges. US prosecutors indicted Lazarenko for money laundering, wire fraud, extortion and other crimes [...]

A federal judge on Friday issued an injunction blocking a planned strike by flight attendants for Northwest Airlines . Urged to intervene by both the airline and the US Department of Justice (DOJ), US District Judge Victor Marrero set a Wednesday deadline for parties to determine whether continued talks on a disputed pay cut are [...]

Nepal's Interim Constitution Drafting Committee (ICDC) on Friday presented a draft constitution to government officials and Maoist rebel representatives participating in the negotiations. The interim draft encompassing 172 articles is designed to replace the current constitution until a new representative body is elected and drafts a permanent constitution. The six-person ICDC was formed in July [...]

US District Judge James Brady has issued a preliminary injunction preventing Louisiana state officials from enforcing a recently enacted statute banning the sale of violent video games to minors. Brady ruled that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) , "are likely to succeed on the [...]

Law enforcement agencies in Kyrgyzstan have been detaining asylum seekers from neighboring Uzbekistan in recent weeks as part of Kyrgyz counterterrorism sweeps, and several asylum seekers have disappeared and have possibly been forcibly returned to Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said Friday. HRW expressed concern that four disappeared Uzbek asylum seekers are in danger and urged [...]

A Chinese court of Friday sentenced New York Times researcher Zhao Yan to three years in prison for fraud charges, but also dismissed more serious charges of illegally leaking state secrets. Zhao was convicted of taking $2,500 from a village official. He was initially also charged with providing state secrets to foreigners, and had he [...]

The US State Department has opened an investigation into whether Israel used cluster munitions in Lebanon during the most recent Middle East conflict in violation of several US-Israel agreements restricting the use of the weapons, the New York Times reported Friday. Last month, advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using cluster grenades in [...]

Former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay expressed disappointment Thursday in recent court decisions preventing the Texas Republican Party from removing his name as a congressional candidate in the November elections, saying that he was "very disappointed in our justice system." DeLay was forced to withdraw his name from the Texas ballot after US Supreme [...]

US Army Lt. Col. Mark Keith, the investigating officer with recommending whether 1st Lt. Ehren Watada will face a military trial for refusing to deploy to Iraq, will recommend Friday that Watada face court-martial on charges of missing his unit's movement, contempt toward officials, and conduct unbecoming an officer. A spokesman for Fort Lewis said [...]

The US Defense Department said Thursday that Murat Kurnaz , a Turkish citizen who is also a legal resident of Germany, has been transferred from Guantanamo Bay into German custody. Kurnaz's release, which was expected , comes at the recommendation of a Guantanamo Administrative Review Board . The panel recommended last year that Kurnaz be [...]