US Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) said Thursday that he would fight subpoenas issued by the US Department of Justice for documents, including legislative records, relating to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff . Doolittle's lawyer said that the Justice Department had overstepped its authority in demanding the documents, noting that the Constitution forbids the executive branch [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Thursday handed down judgments on war crimes suspects Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin , who were accused of killing some 200 Croatian POWs at a pig farm near Vukovar in 1991. The court found Mrksic guilty on three counts of war crimes and sentenced [...]

The US Senate approved an amendment to the 2008 Senate Defense Reauthorization Bill by unanimous voice vote Thursday that would expand federal hate crimes legislation. Among its provisions, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 broadens the definition of a hate crime to include violent attacks against people based on their gender [...]

Russia's top prosecutor has denied a move by a descendant of Russia's Tsar Nicholas II to have the Romanovs declared "political victims," Russia's RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanov , a Spanish resident, was attempting to obtain an order from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office that the Romanov's 1918 execution was a political [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Thursday upheld a 2005 lower court ruling acquitting two Kosovo Albanians and convicting one other for their alleged actions at a prison camp run by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during its open rebellion against Serbian forces in 1998. The ICTY specifically rejected the appeal of Haradin [...]

Lawyers representing twelve members of the US House of Representatives who were subpoenaed last month in the criminal trial of a defense contractor charged with bribing former US Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham filed motions in the Southern District of California Wednesday seeking to have the subpoenas quashed. Lawyers for Brent Wilkes , who is facing [...]

Pakistan police closed off the capital of Islamabad on Thursday to prevent protesters from rallying against President Musharraf's bid for a second five-year term in office. Pakistani lawyers had threatened earlier in the week to defy a government ban on gatherings of more than five people to protest Musharraf's candidacy, which they call illegitimate as [...]

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe devoted much of his address to the 62nd UN General Assembly on Wednesday to attacking the human rights record of US President George W. Bush. Mugabe was responding to Bush's address , where Bush called Mugabe's government a "tyrannical regime" that has "cracked down on peaceful calls for reform, and forced [...]

Myanmar police arrested dozens of Buddhist monks during dawn raids on two monasteries Thursday, one day after police opened fire on anti-government protesters , killing at least eight and arresting over 300. Also Thursday, police again fired shots near crowds of protesters, killing one person. It is unclear whether the shots were aimed at or [...]

Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (INP) has begun officially publishing a list of public officials who worked with or were spied on by the country's Communist-era secret police as part of ongoing efforts to reconcile Poland's pre-1989 Communist heritage. Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and President Lech Kaczynski were both listed Tuesday as officials who [...]