Thai Defense Minister Boonrawd Somtas said Thursday that newly installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will likely lift martial law before he leaves for an international summit in Vietnam on November 18. Thailand has been under martial law since the Thai military seized power from former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup in September. [...]

China has convicted almost all criminal defendants who have come before the courts over the last nine years, the People's Court Daily reported Thursday. From January 1998 through September 2006, 6.2 million criminal defendants were tried with only 41,038 of them acquitted, representing just 0.66 percent. Chinese judges came together this week for its first [...]

The French parliament may soon consider a draft bill proposing the addition of class action lawsuits to France's legal system after French Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industry Thierry Breton introduced the legislation at a weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday. Currently, an association can collectively represent French consumers, but each claimant must be named individually in [...]

The genocide trial of Saddam Hussein for allegedly killing 100,000 Kurds in the "Anfal" campaigns in the late 1980s was adjourned Wednesday just one day after it had resumed . The trial of Saddam and six co-defendants, including Ali Hassan al-Majid , also known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali", is now scheduled to [...]

An unnamed registered sex offender filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday seeking to block California Proposition 83 , a measure approved Tuesday by 70 percent of state voters that would prohibit registered sex offenders from residing "within 2,000 feet of any public or private school or park where children regularly gather." The proposition also [...]

Michigan voters Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment banning affirmative action in public employment, public education and state contracting. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative pushed Proposal 2 which prohibits preferential treatment based on “race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin.” Michigan follows California and Washington as the third state to restrict affirmative action practices. The Michigan [...]

Arizona voters Tuesday overwhelmingly passed four measures directed against illegal immigration, approving each one by about a three-to-one margin across the state. If not overruled by the courts, Proposition 100 will deny bail for illegal immigrants under certain conditions; Proposition 102 will prohibit illegals from receiving punitive damages in civil suits; and Proposition 300 will [...]

Former US Army soldier Steven Green pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Kentucky federal court to charges related to his role in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family in the Mahmudiya (also "Mahmoudiya") area in March. Green, who allegedly tried to burn the bodies of the victims to hide [...]

Former US Army soldier Steven Green pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Kentucky federal court to charges related to his role in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family in the Mahmudiya (also "Mahmoudiya") area in March. Green, who allegedly tried to burn the bodies of the [...]

The parliament of Kyrgyzstan voted Wednesday to adopt a new constitution that will restrict presidential authority based on a compromise reached Tuesday. The new constitution creates a presidential-parliamentary government, enlarging the parliament to 90 deputies and enhancing its power. Additionally, the president will no longer have the power to appoint the prime minister, who will [...]