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 [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism Martin Scheinin has urged Jordan to amend an anti-terrorism law approved last month by the country's National Assembly . Scheinin noted in a statement Friday that human rights advocates and opposition party leaders continue to criticize the measure and flagged several issues with the new law: One [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday that it was fining the American Red Cross $4.2 million for "failure to comply with requirements under Federal laws and FDA regulations relating to the collection of blood products" that had prompted the recall of 12,000 units of blood between 2003 and 2005. Margaret Glavin, FDA [...]

UN legal counsel Nicholas Michel said Friday at the end of a two-day visit to Lebanon that a special tribunal to try individuals connected with the February 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was closer to realization after his latest round of talks with Lebanese officials. Michel, formally the UN Under- Secretary-General for [...]

Conrad Black , the Canadian-born former chairman of media company Hollinger International , pleaded not guilty in Chicago Friday to the latest tax evasion charges he faces stemming from his initial November 2005 indictment related to the $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers and alleged abuse of corporate perquisites at Hollinger. Black's trial [...]

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet can now face human rights charges stemming from the torture of thousands of citizens at Villa Grimaldi prison , an infamous political detention center run by Pinochet’s secret police between 1974 and 1977, thanks to a ruling issued Friday by the Supreme Court of Chile . The high court officially [...]

The US military discovered several "torture chambers" northeast of Baghdad in May and June, Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Turner II , the senior commander of US and Iraqi forces in northern Iraq, said Friday. Turner told Pentagon reporters via teleconference about the discovery of the "torture chambers," which consisted of two or three small rooms [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Thursday that its Division of Corporation Finance will begin drafting an amendment to an SEC Rule under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 which says a company can deny its shareholders the right to vote on a proposal that "relates to an election," including elections of company [...]

Leading Wednesday's international brief, Amnesty International has alleged that efforts by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to provide housing for the hundreds of thousands of residents he forcefully evicted in 2005 have fallen well short of international human rights standards. Amnesty's report presents evidence of a complete failure to protect Zimbabweans made homeless by the Zimbabwean [...]

President Bush's announcement that 14 terrorism suspects have been transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay is "significant" but not sufficient, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said through a spokesman Friday. Instead, Arbour renewed a demand that the prisons be "completely abolished." Last year, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan defended Arbour after [...]