California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George proposed a constitutional amendment Monday designed to expedite death penalty appeals by shifting the locus of review from the state supreme court to state appeals courts. The California Supreme Court currently has the authority to transfer any matter to the appellate courts, excepting appeals from judgments imposing the [...]

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has registered to run for a third term in office, despite an amendment to the Uzbek constitution limiting presidents to two consecutive terms. Karimov accepted a nomination to run for president earlier this month, but has given no official explanation for how his decision comports with the constitution. The election is [...]

Indonesian prosecutors Monday went to court in a civil lawsuit against Tommy Suharto , the youngest son of former President Haji Mohammed Suharto , in order to recover an alleged $55 million in losses related to a land exchange scam from the mid-1990s. After failing to reach a settlement in the suit last week, prosecutors [...]

Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu pleaded not guilty Monday as her trial on corruption and forgery charges began in Taipei. The charges against Lu stem from allegations that she claimed 5.6 million Taiwan dollars in special expenses using more than 1,000 false receipts from December 2000 to May 2006 in her capacity as vice president. [...]

An Italian court Monday dismissed false accounting charges against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , ruling that the statute of limitations had expired. Prosecutors alleged that Berlusconi's broadcasting company, Mediaset , incorrectly reported its costs in purchasing television rights to US films in a ploy to avoid paying higher taxes in 2000. Berlusconi still [...]

Former Iraqi Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili and Brigadier General Hameed al-Shimmari will go to trial within days for allegedly channeling millions in government money to the Mehdi Army militia , Iraqi chief prosecutor Ghadanfar Mahmoud told AP Monday. The two high-level officials also allegedly allowed Shiite death squads to use Health Ministry facilities and [...]

Almost eight percent more hate crimes were reported in 2006 than the previous year, according to the 2006 Hate Crime Statistics released by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Monday. Participating local law enforcement agencies reported a total of 7,722 incidents in 2006, up from 7,163 reported incidents in 2005. The report listed 5,449 [...]

Pakistani authorities in Lahore and Balochistan Monday ordered the release of a number of lawyers arrested earlier this month for protesting President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency rule. In Lahore, an anti-terrorism court judge granted bail to 42 lawyers held in various jails, according to a report by the Associated Press of Pakistan. [...]

Anonymous : "I went to the Lahore High Court (LHC) this morning; it was as deserted as before. The President of the High Court Bar Association under detention has been released last night. He was detained under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance rather than a Police Report (FIR). The Home Department withdrew his detention [...]

The Israeli cabinet on Monday approved the release of 441 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of good will toward Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in preparation for a US-sponsored peace conference , scheduled to begin at the end of the month. The release approved fell short of the demand for the release of 2,000 prisoners by [...]