The prosecutor in the genocide case against former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam announced Thursday that he is appealing last month’s sentence of life imprisonment , and will again push for the death penalty. Of the three sentencing judges, one opted for the death penalty, while the other two felt life sentences were more appropriate [...]

Lawyers for the three recently re-charged Guantanamo detainees renewed their condemnation of new military commission rules Thursday, telling the Associated Press that the tight deadlines established by the rules will prevent extended investigation into the reliability of the evidence brought against their clients. Navy lawyer Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift , appointed to defend Yemeni Salim [...]

Iraq Deputy Health Minister Hakim Zamili has been arrested in an apparent security crackdown in Baghdad, according to a report by the US military Thursday. According to military officials, Zamili had been infiltrating members of the Mehdi Army militia , headed by militant Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr , into the Iraq ministry. Zamili's brother, another [...]

Romania must return property it nationalized during the 1950s, or else pay overdue compensation, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday. The judgment came in two separate cases both filed by plaintiffs alleging that the Communist regime unlawfully seized their buildings and apartments in Bucharest, the capital, and resold them, violating the owners' [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has achieved marked success in bringing international war criminals to justice, chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte told a conference on Thursday. Del Ponte, who has served as chief prosecutor for 8 years and is scheduled to step down later this year , said that while six [...]

Robert Amsterdam : "The new proceedings against Mr Khodorkovsky are a miscarriage of justice in the context of a system of total injustice. There is nowhere in Russia that this defendant can have a fair trial, because those who have the power to control the legal system have an interest, both materially and personally, in [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 on Thursday to send a bill to the Senate floor which would permit US district courts to appoint temporary US Attorneys when those spots become vacant, reversing a provision in the Patriot Act reauthorization that allowed the US attorney general to replace fired US Attorneys indefinitely, thus circumventing [...]

US Marine Cpl. Trent Thomas withdrew his guilty plea in the second day of his sentencing hearing Thursday on unpremeditated murder charges stemming from the alleged murder of Iraqi civilian Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the village of Hamdania in April 2006. Thomas, who pleaded guilty in January, said that he no longer believes he is [...]

The European Commission (EC) unveiled a mandatory CO2 emissions strategy Wednesday that would impose mandatory carbon dioxide (CO2) limits on all cars by 2012. Today's average European car emits approximately 160 grams of CO2 per kilometer; the new strategy would curb emissions at around 130 grams per kilometer. The strategy is a compromise agreement between [...]

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the US Thursday to cooperate with proceedings initiated against a US soldier in the shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq. An Italian judge Wednesday ordered New York Army National Guard soldier Mario Lozano to stand trial on charges of voluntary homicide in connection with the [...]