The Ecuador Congress voted Tuesday to hold a referendum on whether Ecuador should form a constitutional assembly to rewrite its constitution . The vote is seen as a victory for the reform agenda of President Rafael Correa , who wants to change the constitution to restrain powerful political parties , increase government accountability, and hold [...]

Switzerland is launching a criminal probe into the alleged unlawful use of Swiss airspace by US agents in anti-terrorist operations after authorization Wednesday by the Swiss Federal Council , which said in a statement that there was evidence that "basic norms of international law were violated." The investigation will center around the abduction of Muslim [...]

President Bush on Wednesday issued an executive order establishing military commissions for enemy combatants held by the US. According to White House officials, the order is required under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) to proceed with trials for terror suspects detained at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay . It will facilitate [...]

Former CIA executive director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and defense contractor Brent Wilkes both pleaded not guilty Wednesday to corruption charges connected with the case of former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham . Both Foggo and Wilkes, who were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday, have been under investigation by the FBI since May, after Cunningham pleaded [...]

A UN Human Rights Council investigatory team Wednesday cancelled a scheduled trip to the Darfur region of Sudan after Sudanese officials again refused to grant a visa to a team member. The UN refused to replace Bertrand Ramcharan , a former Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who accused the Sudanese government of violating [...]

The UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed Tuesday that it had begun an investigation into whether UK firms paid illegal kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime in the now-defunct UN Oil-for-Food program , through which Hussein allegedly embezzled as much as $1.8 billion. According to the Guardian newspaper, drug manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca and Eli [...]

A French magistrate judge has issued a second summons to Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh requesting testimony for an investigation into the May 1995 death of a French judge in Djibouti. Djibouti officials maintain that the death of Bernard Borrel , who advised the Djibouti justice ministry until he was found dead in a ravine, [...]

The US State Department Wednesday announced an expanded program to allow 7,000 Iraqi refugees to resettle in the US. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres to discuss the plan, which will fast-track refugee applications from Iraqis who face retaliation for cooperating with US forces. Since the Iraq [...]

The trial of Saddam-era Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was flawed and he should not be executed, a UN Human Rights expert said Wednesday. Phillip Alston , appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in 2004, said judicial misconduct, official statements declaring Ramadan guilty before his sentence, and the admission [...]

A senior Chinese official said Tuesday that the government plans to establish a "National Corruption Prevention Bureau" to ensure China's compliance with the UN Convention Against Corruption , which China signed in 2005. The proposed bureau is another step forward in China's fight against widespread corruption, following a year in which over 97,000 Chinese officials [...]