The Bosnian war crimes tribunal Tuesday sentenced a Bosnian Muslim to 30 years in prison for war crimes committed against Serbs in the 1992 – 1995 civil war . Niset Ramic received the longest sentence yet handed down by the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber. The court found Ramic guilty of murdering four Serbian civilians in [...]

French Justice Minister Rachida Dati pressed a bill to toughen the country's criminal code in an appearance before the National Assembly Tuesday. The bill, which fulfills a campaign promise of French President Nicolas Sarkozy , will allow minors as young as 16 to be treated as adults when charges are serious. It will also establish [...]

A suicide bomber struck a lawyers' protest over the ousting of suspended Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in Islamabad Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding at least 40. Chaudhry was not present at the time of the attack, which appeared to be aimed at his supporters. Witnesses told the BBC that [...]

Sources close to Libya's Supreme Judiciary Council told the Associated Press Tuesday that the death sentences of six foreign medics accused of knowingly infecting over 400 Libyan patients with the HIV virus have been commuted to life in prison. The families of the infected patients dropped their calls for the execution of the workers after [...]

Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal Tuesday upheld a 2006 lower court ruling that invalidated a law targeting public homosexual sodomy , ruling that the law's specific focus against homosexual sodomy is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and thereby violates Hong Kong's Basic Law and the Bill of Rights . The original ruling , issued last-September by the [...]

Some members of the European Parliament criticized Swiss Senator Dick Marty Tuesday for failing to cite sources in his June report to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that accused Poland and Romania of assisting the US Central Intelligence Agency in operating secret prisons for terror suspects. One criticized Marty's report as essentially [...]

Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock said Tuesday that the Australian government is considering whether to toughen existing terror laws following a Monday ruling by a magistrate granting bail to UK terror suspect Dr. Mohammad Haneef . Immigration and Citizenship Minister Kevin Andrews subsequently revoked Haneef's work visa and placed Haneef under immigration detention to effectively [...]

Russia's Constitutional Court Monday upheld a 2004 law requiring certified political parties to have at least 50,000 members. The decision upheld a May Supreme Court ruling that dissolved the Russian Communist Workers Party – Revolutionary Party of Communists (RKRP-RPK) , a party of approximately 35,000 members. The party's first secretary told reporters that the decision [...]

The European Court of First Instance announced Tuesday that it will deliver a judgment September 17 in Microsoft's appeal against the European Commission's (EC) 2004 landmark anti-trust ruling that hit Microsoft with a record €497.2 million euro (approximately $686 million) fine. Microsoft, which is seeking the "annulment of the decision or a substantial reduction in [...]

India's Ministry of Women and Child Development announced plans Tuesday to toughen existing laws prohibiting the archaic Hindu funeral custom of sati , in which widows are expected to self-immolate on their deceased husbands' funeral pyre, by holding entire communities criminally responsible and increasing the maximum punishment from the current seven years imprisonment to life. [...]