Iranian police arrested twenty people near the Iraqi border on suspicion of participating in an international spy ring, according to state news agency IRNA Monday. The arrests come several months after the Iranian government first accused four Iranian-Americans of belonging to a US-organized spy network. The latest sweep included some foreigners, but so far specific [...]

Eric Linge, Pitt law '09, files from Mumbai: The Indian Supreme Court has made itself into possibly the most powerful apex court in the world. As addressed in "India: Judicially Independent," below on this page, the Indian Supreme Court held in Kesavanand Bharati v. Kerala that the Court can strike down any constitutional amendment that [...]

Former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba Monday challenged the $58 million (USD) fine imposed upon him last month by a London judge, asking a Zambian court to throw out the fine because the UK court had no jurisdiction over Zambian affairs. Last month, High Court judge Peter Smith ordered Chiluba to pay the sum to compensate [...]

The government of Zimbabwe has arrested more than 1300 shop owners and managers who refused to comply with price controls imposed more than two weeks ago , according to Monday police reports. On June 26, Industry Minister Obert Mpofu ordered the prices of all goods and services in Zimbabwe to be halved, saying the measure [...]

The constitutional scholars who drafted the interim Palestinian constitution spoke out against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Monday, saying that although Abbas had the right to dismiss former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh , he acted against the constitution in June by appointing the new "emergency" government excluding Hamas without the legislature's approval and by [...]

An English court Monday found four men guilty for plotting the failed bomb attacks on London's subway and bus systems on July 21, 2005, two weeks after a similar attack killed 52 people. The jury at the Woolrich Crown Court unanimously found Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammad, and Hussain Osman guilty of conspiracy [...]

Ethiopian prosecutors Monday sought the death penalty against 38 opposition members convicted in June of treason and inciting violence for their roles in mass anti-government demonstrations , saying that the defendants have not demonstrated remorse and therefore should be subjected to the harshest punishment. The opposition members, most of whom belonged to the Coalition for [...]

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have charged two men with murder for their role in the 2005 shooting deaths of four Mounties in an Alberta ambush , the highest death toll suffered by Canada's national police force in over 100 years. Dennis Keegan Rodney Cheeseman and Sean William Hennesey are not believed to have [...]

House Judiciary Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) urged the White House Monday to waive executive privilege concerning its decision to commute the prison sentence for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , saying that the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday to determine why President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence . Conyers also expressed [...]

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Monday urged the Filipino government to revisit the controversial 2007 Human Security Act , saying that "many voices are apprehensive" about the anti-terror legislation. Critics say the law defines terrorism too loosely and gives government authorities too much latitude to restrict civil liberties. The law, which was [...]