Palestinian refugees in Iraq face danger from Shiite militias and harassment from the Iraqi government, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report released Sunday. The monitoring group found that the security of the approximately 34,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003: "Militant [...]

China Sunday released new media regulations governing the domestic release of news and information by foreign news agencies. The regulations give China's official Xinhua News Agency ultimate rights of approval over the distribution and release of foreign news content in China . The new rules designate foreign news agencies as agents of Xinhua and are [...]

Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami has been served with a summons for a lawsuit by a group of Jewish Iranians while on a two-week visit to the United States . The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in New York by seven families, located in Los Angeles and Israel, who claim that the Iranian [...]

UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland said on a visit to a refugee camp in northern Uganda Saturday that indicted leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) should be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) despite a recent offer of amnesty by the Ugandan government in exchange for their agreement to a truce and [...]

Senate Republican leaders plan to negotiate with the White House through the weekend to resolve different versions of a bill that would legislatively authorize the establishment of military commissions for suspected terrorists. Saturday's New York Times quotes Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) as saying that most provisions of the White House-sponsored Military [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Saturday joined other Europeans in criticizing the Bush administration for admittedly operating clandestine Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detention centers in Europe, a practice which she called "not compatible with my understanding of the rule of law." President Bush acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons outside the US for the first [...]

The Utah Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a University of Utah policy banning firearms on campus violates state law. In a 4-1 opinion , the court rejected the university's argument that as an autonomous entity under Article X of the state constitution , it could disregard state law that conflicted with its internal academic [...]

A Sudanese judge released American journalist Paul Salopek from detention Saturday the day after a meeting between Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and visiting New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson . Late last month Salopek and two others were arrested and charged for espionage and printing false information after they allegedly crossed into the war-torn Darfur region [...]

The City Council of Hazleton, Pennsylvania granted tentative approval to revisions to its controversial Illegal Immigration Relief Act on Friday in an attempt to help the law survive legal challenges. The changes shift burdens originally placed on businesses, now making it the city's responsibility to determine immigration statuses. The Council will vote Tuesday on whether [...]

US and European representatives are set to continue talks next week on an airline passenger data-sharing deal after officials were unable to agree Friday on a replacement for a previous agreement struck down by the European Court of Justice in May on privacy-related grounds. According to the court ruling, officials have until September 30 to [...]