The Russian Central Election Commission issued a unanimous decision Sunday to ban former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov from running in the March presidential election. The Election Commission found that hundreds of thousands of signatures he had to submit in support of his candidacy were either forged or incorrect. Under Russian law, no more than 5 [...]

A Sudanese aid worker formerly held at Guantanamo Bay was among a group of ex-prisoners that demanded money and an apology from the US government Saturday for physical and mental torture they say they were subjected to at the prison. Adil Hassan Hamad, freed last December , told a conference in Khartoum that he and [...]

Jerome Kerviel, a former trader at the French bank Societe Generale , turned himself in to French police Saturday in connection with an investigation of what caused the bank to lose more than $7 billion. Kerviel has been accused of carrying out a scheme which amounted to the largest bank fraud in history. Societe Generale, [...]

Angela C. Wu : "The Netherlands, seeking to address concerns about security and cultural integration, is in the final stages of banning the burqa in schools and government offices, with a fine of up to 3,350 euros or 12 days in jail. The parliament has passed the ban, which will be discussed at next Friday's [...]

Cara Horowitz : "Care about the National Environmental Policy Act? Then read on. Early in January, in a case challenging naval mid-frequency sonar training exercises off the coast of southern California, environmentalists (including my organization, NRDC) won a major victory when a federal court issued an injunction requiring the most comprehensive suite yet of measures [...]

Afghan Ambassador to Canada Omar Samad said Friday that his country still considers its agreement with Canada regarding the transfer of detainees to be in effect and is working closely with NATO forces to ensure the safety of prisoners in Afghan custody. The statement comes two days after reports surfaced that Canada had ceased turning [...]

Suspected Russian crime lord Semyon Y. Mogilevich has been arrested in Moscow on tax evasion charges, Russian officials said Friday. Mogilevich was arrested late Wednesday and a court approved his arrest on Thursday. Mogilevich is also wanted in the US on unrelated charges for allegedly manipulating the stock of the billion dollar Pennsylvania corporation YBM [...]

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern Saturday about "gross and systematic abuses of human rights" taking place in Kenya in the wake of last month's disputed presidential election . Annan is in the country to help mediate the conflict between Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition candidate Raila Odinga . Annan acknowledged that the [...]

The military government of Myanmar continues to arrest political dissidents despite assurances given by Prime Minister Thein Sein in November that the arrests had stopped and no more would take place, Amnesty International reported Friday. There have been 96 arrests since November and at least 700 of those arrested during September protests and 1,150 political [...]

Sharon Bradford Franklin : "The State Secrets Protection Act (S. 2533), introduced this week by Senators Kennedy and Specter, would bring much needed reform to the state secrets privilege. The doctrine has been problematic since it was first recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953 in United States v. Reynolds. In that case, the [...]