The French Senate approved anti-terror legislation in a 202-122 vote Thursday after preliminarily approving the bill last week. The bill, introduced by conservative presidential hopeful and current Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and influenced by the recently enacted British anti-terrorism bill, increases funding for video surveillance of public areas such as airports and train stations, permits [...]

A British appellate court has ruled Thursday that British soldiers in Iraq are forbidden to subject Iraqi prisoners to cruel or degrading treatment while in their custody. The determination that the Human Rights Act – a 1998 statute encating the European Convention on Human Rights into English law – applies to any British troop with [...]

Australian police have arrested a 33-year-old man for using text messages to incite rioting a week after race riots broke out in Sydney involving 5,000 people, mostly white men and youths, attacking Muslim residents on local beaches. Wednesday's arrest marks the first instance someone has been charged with such an offense. The man allegedly forwarded [...]

Nearly 700 same-sex couples in Britain took part in civil partnership ceremonies Wednesday, the first day of eligibility under Britain's Civil Partnership Act , which was enacted in 2004. Registration for civil partnerships began earlier this month, and couples are required to wait 15 days after registration before holding ceremonies. Partners in civil unions are [...]

The US Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the Byrd Amendment in October 2007, following a similar vote in the US House of Representatives last month. Officially known as the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act , the amendment, which allows private companies to collect duties from foreign imports that the government considers to be unfairly [...]

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in his traditional year-end press conference Wednesday that he wanted to dedicate his final year in the position to encouraging peace and UN reform . Looking back on 2005 he also offered stinging criticism of the media coverage of the UN oil-for-food program , accusing journalists of focusing too much [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requested that the German government not release Mohammed Ali Hamadi, a convicted hijacker accused of killing a US Navy diver, but Germany refused, the Bush administration confirmed Wednesday. Hamadi was convicted for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight by a group of Shiite militants seeking the release of Lebanese [...]

Colombian prosecutors plan to file charges against former justice minister Alberto Santofimio Botero in connection with the 1989 assassination of Liberal party presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan , the attorney general's office announced Wednesday. Santofimio will face homicide and conspiracy charges for Galan's assassination, which took place as he spoke at a political rally. Drug [...]

Saddam Hussein on Thursday denounced US denials of his claims that he has been tortured while held by US forces and argued that the US had also lied about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction in the run up to the war in Iraq. Hussein made the remarks before the Iraqi Special Tribunal hearing [...]

A lawyer for Tariq Aziz , Iraq's deputy prime minister during Saddam Hussein's regime, said Wednesday that US troops are protecting "high-value" former Iraqi officials released from custody earlier this week. Badee Izzat Aref said that 25 officials, including Dr. Rihab Taha al-Azawi know as "Dr. Germ", had been released from custody and were being [...]