The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Monday announced the creation of a $1.25 million fund to settle 32 lawsuits alleging abuse or injury by priests. Even though Pennsylvania's statute of limitations barred many victims from filing personal injury claims, the diocese has created the fund and will also offer a program of counseling and healing. Other [...]

China has increased its efforts to stop illegal land transfers and punish government officials responsible for illegal land title transfers, an official from the Law Enforcement and Supervision Bureau under the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources said Monday. While property in China is essentially state-owned, land use titles convey their holders a form of [...]

The Egyptian government has banned an annual gathering of the Muslim Brotherhood as part of its crackdown on opposition to the Egyptian government, a Brotherhood official said Sunday. The Brotherhood gathers annually for a social celebration of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan; 1,500 people usually attend the event. This is the first time the [...]

Central African Republic (CAR) government forces are responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings and the burning of thousands of civilian homes since mid-2005 in their counterinsurgency campaign, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) . The report, released Friday, alleges that since the beginning of the conflict, CAR security forces have been [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan began hearing petitions Monday by parties opposing the re-election of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf while he serves as chief of Pakistan's army. The court hearings came the same day that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said that a change to election rules will facilitate Musharraf's bid for re-election . [...]

The European Court of First Instance on Monday upheld the European Commission's (EC) 2004 landmark anti-trust ruling against Microsoft's appeal of the $613 million fine and order for Microsoft to share its communications code with competitors. The court agreed with the EC's ruling that Microsoft abused its monopoly power in the computer market by trying [...]

President Bush has decided to nominate retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey as the next US attorney general succeeding the resigned Alberto Gonzales and will formally announce his pick Monday, according to administration and Republican Party sources cited in media reports late Sunday. Mukasey, 66, who retired from the US District Court for the Southern [...]

Japanese House of Representatives member Yasuo Fukuda , the leading candidate to succeed former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe , said Sunday that the coalition government under the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) may take the unusual step of renewing the controversial Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law by adopting renewal measures twice in the House of Representatives, altogether [...]

Former federal judge Michael B. Mukasey is emerging as the leading candidate to head the US Department of Justice, the New York Times and AP reported Saturday. Mukasey, who retired from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2006 after 18 years, has been previously endorsed by Sen. Charles Schumer [...]

US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L. Wainstein , head of the US Department of Justice's National Security Division (NSD) , is seeking to reassure members of Congress that the Protect America Act 2007 is not over-broad and will not allow government authorities to conduct warrantless domestic searches, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The Protect America [...]