US Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has urged the US Justice Department to appeal this week's federal court ruling vacating the conviction of former Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay . Feinstein wrote to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Friday, calling the ruling "disconcerting" and warranting "immediate attention." US District Court Judge Sim Lake Tuesday vacated [...]

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) prosecutor Carla del Ponte said Saturday that she believes that Bosnian war fugitive Ratko Mladic "is in Serbia, in and around Belgrade". Del Ponte has been critical of Serbian efforts to catch Mladic, calling the failure to apprehend him "inexcusable"" and urging the EU to hold off [...]

Repeated allegations of widespread human rights abuses in Myanmar continue to go uninvestigated by the military government and its inaction remains the primary obstacle to securing human rights in the country, according to a new UN report presented Friday. UN Special rapportuer for human rights in Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told the UN General Assembly's [...]

US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried Friday condemned the passage of a bill last week by the French lower house of parliament making it a crime to deny that killings of Armenians in 1915 in the then-Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) was genocide. Fried said the bill, which still needs approval by the French Senate [...]

Rogelio Pfirter , director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has urged North Korea and several Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and destroy their weapon stockpiles. Speaking to the UN General Assembly Friday, Pfirter said that all nations must join the [...]

The Intermediate People's Court in the city of Shaoyang has released a Chinese journalist, Yang Xiaoqing, on bail after he served only seven months of his one-year sentence , Yang's wife said Saturday. The court exempted Yang from serving the remainder of his sentence, but did not overturn his conviction. Yang was arrested in January [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Friday that Arizona can enforce a new law requiring voters to show government-issued ID cards at the polls for the November elections, reversing a decision rendered earlier this month by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit . In a per curiam opinion, the court said: The election [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) , does not have authority to regulate how certain games, including blackjack and slot machines, are run on Indian casinos. The dispute arose in 2001, when the NIGC attempted to audit an Arizona casino run by [...]

US District Judge Lewis Babcock upheld Colorado's ban on smoking in indoor public places Friday, despite allegations that it discriminates in favor of casinos at the expense of bar owners. Babcock dismissed a suit challenging the constitutionality of the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act , which since July 1 has banned smoking indoors in public, [...]

US Marine Pfc. John J. Jodka will plead guilty in connection with the April 26 death of Iraqi civilian Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania , according to Jodka's lawyer speaking Friday. The guilty plea, expected to be entered on Thursday, is to charges of assault and obstruction of justice, reduced from the original charges of [...]