Investigators searched the offices of former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Friday as part of a probe into an alleged smear campaign conducted against Villepin political rival and now French President Nicolas Sarkozy . In 2004, a magistrate received anonymous letters accusing Sarkozy of holding secret bank accounts linked to the corrupt sale [...]

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The Duma , the lower house of the Russian parliament, Friday approved legislative amendments to change the prevailing definition of extremist crime in Russian law to include activities taken for "political or ideological hatred." Opponents of the legislation criticized the amendments as an attempt to curtail civil liberties and hamper democracy by putting restraints on [...]

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A Bangladeshi court jailed UN human rights expert Sigma Huda Thursday, pending a trial over allegations connecting her to a government corruption case . Prosecutors allege Huda assisted her husband, former Bangladeshi communications minister Nazmul Huda, in extorting almost $300,000 USD from a construction company while in office. The Bangladesh Supreme Court overturned a lower [...]

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