Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet told federal judge Alejandro Solis during a meeting Wednesday that he neither participated in nor was aware of the torture of thousands of citizens at Villa Grimaldi prison , the infamous political detention center allegedly operated by Pinochet’s secret police in Chile between 1974 and 1977. Solis, who reportedly plans [...]

A civil court in Berlin Wednesday dismissed two claims against a German distributor of the drug Vioxx , manufactured by US pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. , citing plaintiffs' failures in both cases to demonstrate a causal connection between the drug and symptoms. The court held that "expressing a vague suspicion is not enough" in [...]

Plans for the organization of a national human rights commission in Iraq were announced Wednesday by members of the Iraqi parliament at a workshop sponsored by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) . The proposed commission, supported by many Iraqi political parties, will employ nine persons selected by the Iraqi parliament to monitor [...]

Seventy-eight people have been charged with bankruptcy fraud and related counts as a result of a nationwide federal law enforcement sweep entitled "Operation Truth or Consequences," a top US Department of Justice (DOJ) official announced Wednesday. Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty said the charges arose out of 18 separate cases of bankruptcy fraud and [...]

Four US soldiers implicated 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 have been referred to trial by general court-martial, military officials at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, announced Wednesday. Two of the soldiers, Pfc. Jesse Spielman and Sgt. Paul Cortez, [...]

US Army Col. Richard Basset traveled to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay Wednesday to begin an investigation into accusations of abuse . The US Defense Department last week ordered US Southern Command , which oversees the military facility, to investigate allegations that military guards beat detainees and took away their personal items for [...]

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair blamed judges and political opponents for the disappearance of two terror suspects during his monthly news conference on Wednesday, insisting that his attempts to enact stronger terrorism legislation "were prevented by opposition in Parliament and then by the courts in ensuring that was done." The missing uncharged suspects were under [...]

The father of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has said that Hicks' defense team will challenge the Military Commissions Act of 2006 signed into law by President Bush Tuesday. Terry Hicks said Tuesday that the new legislation leaves the previous system for military commissions virtually intact, although it was ruled unconstitutional by the US [...]

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) , claiming the agencies illegally employed information from databases such as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which tracks predominantly Muslim visitors, immigrants, and students to the US. The lawsuit, filed [...]

Russian hockey team Metallurg Magnitogorsk on Wednesday sued Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the NHL in a dispute over the star hockey player's move from Russia to the National Hockey League, the second such lawsuit to be filed this week by a Russian Super Hockey League team. The lawsuit, seeking an injunction blocking Malkin [...]