In his final will, dictated to his principal Iraqi defense counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi 24 hours before his December 30 execution , former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein instructed his legal team to stop all appeals, saying that his impending execution was the work of US and Iranian collaboration. The document, a copy of which was obtained [...]

The US House of Representatives passed HR 3 Thursday, which would amend the Public Health Service Act to allow for additional embryonic stem cell research. In a press release issued after passage, the White House characterized embryonic stem cells as human life, and promised to veto the bill. President Bush’s first veto in office came [...]

Protests against the US military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay Cuba continued Thursday as the facility marked its fifth anniversary. In Cuba itself, peace activists, including former detainee Asif Iqbal , and Gold Star Families for Peace founder Cindy Sheehan marched from Guantanamo city to the location of the US camp to demonstrate [...]

A federal judge in Kentucky ruled Thursday that three plaintiffs would be allowed to proceed to the discovery phase of their lawsuit against the Holy See alleging that US bishops, acting as agents of Vatican officials, negligently allowed known child abusers to remain in their positions. The 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act generally excludes sovereign [...]

The President of Bangladesh declared a state of emergency in the troubled country Thursday in the face of violent political protests and a 19-party alliance threatening to blockade voting places before the scheduled January 22 elections. National authorities imposed a curfew on 60 cities and towns and ordered television stations to air state-produced emergency bulletins [...]

A Mississippi jury Wednesday held the State Farm insurance company liable for $2.5 million dollars in punitive damages after US District Court Judge L.T. Senter Jr. issued an unexpected directed verdict calling on the company to pay $223,292 for rejecting a claim brought in the wake of Hurricane Katrina . Senter ruled that State Farm [...]

Ali Hassan al-Majid , the cousin of Saddam Hussein also known as "Chemical Ali," became the leading defendant Thursday in the genocide trial currently before the Iraqi High Tribunal . The chief judge presiding over the trial dismissed all charges against Hussein Monday following his December 30 execution . The six remaining defendants are all [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Wednesday claimed the refusal of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to release two Department of Justice memos points to a cover-up of unlawful abuse. The memos, which discuss interrogation methods and a presidential order concerning the CIA's authorization to set up detention facilities outside the United States, were [...]

Former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday after he was convicted on genocide charges in absentia at the conclusion of a 12-year trial. Mengistu and 72 other former officials were charged with genocide, imprisonment, homicide, and illegal confiscation of property for crimes committed during the "Red Terror" , where thousands [...]

The Communist Party of China (CPC) promised Wednesday to confront gambling, corruption, embezzlement, and fraud within the government, following a speech Tuesday by Chinese President Hu Jintao where the president hailed reforms accomplished in 2006 and vowed to build a cleaner Communist party in China. Hu's speech focused on four measures: improving ethics education, reform [...]