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 [...]

The Russian Constitutional Court will now hold its sessions in St. Petersburg, rather than its current Moscow location, after Russia's Federation Council voted 147-2 to approve the authorizing bill. The bill, which was approved by the Russian State Duma in December, was revised to permit the Court to hold visiting sessions anywhere in the Russian [...]

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday called for the European constitution to be in place before the 2009 European parliamentary elections. Rasmussen acknowledged that some changes to the current draft constitution may be necessary after voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the draft in 2006, but stressed that of the 27 EU [...]

Over 450 illegal immigrants out of over 750 taken into custody have already been deported by US immigration authorities after a week-long crackdown in five counties in southern California, officials at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Tuesday. Of those taken into custody, 338 were arrested in residential raids and 423 were identified [...]