Federal authorities arrested a Mississippi man Wednesday for the 1964 kidnapping and deaths of two black men in another reopened civil rights-era case . James Ford Seale, now 71 years old, was originally arrested in 1964 on suspicion of kidnapping two young black men, Henry Dee and Charles Moore, who were later found dead in [...]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged Israeli President Moshe Katsav to step down Wednesday in the face of possible charges of rape and sexual harassment . Haaretz quoted Olmert as saying that "In these circumstances there is no doubt in my heart that the president cannot continue to fulfill his role and must leave the [...]

The US House of Representatives Wednesday passed a resolution which would amend House rules to grant limited voting rights to federal lawmakers from five US nonstate territories. The resolution, introduced January 19, would extend certain Congressional voting rights to delegates from the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, to [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will rule January 29 on whether war crimes charges will be confirmed against Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga , a move that would make Lubanga the first ICC defendant. As founder of the militant Union of Patriotic Congolese , Lubanga is accused of enlisting child soldiers in the Democratic Republic [...]

Turkish prosecutors have charged five people in connection with the murder of Hrant Dink , the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was shot and killed last week. The five are accused of belonging to an armed gang, and prosecutors are investigating whether other political or illegal organizations are tied to the group. Dink was convicted last year [...]

Ex-Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega , who has spent the last 17 years in US custody, including 15 years in federal prison on drug trafficking and racketeering charges, is to be released on September 9, 2007 , according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons . Noriega, a former US ally who ruled Panama as a military [...]

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals heard oral arguments Wednesday on whether criminal conspiracy charges brought against former US Rep. Tom Delay were properly dismissed at trial. Charges of conspiracy to violate election law and conspiracy to commit money laundering were dismissed last December after the trial court found that the Texas campaign finance statute [...]

Ukraine political leaders have reached a compromise in a dispute over recently passed legislation that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko threatened to challenge in court after claiming that it would illegally expand the cabinet's power at the expense of the presidency. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday that, following a Tuesday conversation between himself, Yushchenko, and [...]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday in response to a press question about Italy's recent push for an international death penalty moratorium that he supports the international trend towards abolishing the death penalty. Ban came under fire from human rights groups earlier this month after he told the press January 2, in the immediate [...]

Sri Lanka is "complicit or willfully blind" to the child conscription efforts of the rebel group Karuna , according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published Wednesday that alleges the government has helped Karuna abduct children to fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , also known as the "Tamil Tigers." The [...]