Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, and Ohio have joined California and New Jersey in suing tobacco companies for money they say is owed under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) . The Illinois attorney general says the state is owed almost $40 million and is suing to recover that money and to ensure that the state doesn't [...]

China responded Thursday to criticism from the British Transplantation Society , which accused the country of harvesting and selling the organs of executed Chinese prisoners, by saying that similar practices had been used on patients in Great Britain a few years ago. The British group said Wednesday that an increasing amount of evidence has been [...]

The National Security Archive , a research institute at George Washington University, won partial summary judgment on Wednesday in its lawsuit against the US Air Force, as the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Air Force had engaged in a pattern or practice of violating the Freedom of Information Act [...]

Afghanistan's peace and reconciliation commission Thursday praised the release of a list of detainees held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay , which was made available as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in March by the Associated Press . A senior official for the Afghan commission which has [...]

Michael Kelly : "Russian Duma Speaker Gryzlov's determination this week that the Russian constitution would not be changed to allow Putin to run for a third term as president is a triumph for democracy, but will not likely be the end of the story. Speculation is mounting that fresh off his recent "re-election" (stolen as [...]

A panel from the US House Committee on International Relations sharply criticized China's human rights record on Wednesday, ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's Thursday visit to the White House . At a Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations hearing , subcommittee chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said: This week's visit of [...]

The Supreme Court of the Philippines Thursday ruled unconstitutional a 2005 executive order from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which prevented government officials from being questioned in investigations against her regarding vote-rigging and election fraud in 2004. Arroyo escaped attempts to impeach her last September and implemented the order when two military officers answered questions in an [...]

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps , a private organization of volunteers who patrol US borders, said Thursday that they would begin building a security fence on land owned by supporters along the US-Mexico border if President Bush doesn't direct the government to do so. The debate on immigration reform is expected to be an important [...]

A travel ban on Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has been extended for another year, Vanunu's lawyer said Thursday. Israel's Ministry of Justice has rejected Vanunu's appeal, saying that he could reveal more military secrets. Vanunu has said he had no more secrets to tell and that he wanted to start a new life abroad. [...]

Svetlana Bakhmina , a lawyer for the Russian oil company Yukos , was convicted Wednesday of tax evasion and embezzlement for her part in a scheme to strip assets worth over $300 million from a Yukos subsidiary. Bakhmina was sentenced to seven years at a high-security penal colony. Bakhmina pleaded not guilty and argued that [...]