Serbian members of parliament declared Serbia a sovereign nation Monday, two days after the parliament of Montenegro proclaimed its own independence from the former Serbia-Montenegro union. The breakup marks the final dissolution of what remained of the post-WWII Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , now divided into six successor states (the others being Bosnia and Herzegovina, [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in a case that will decide how much public schools can consider race in public school admissions assignments. The Court will hear appeals in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District , and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education . In Parents, the Ninth [...]

A Baghdad court has convicted one man but acquitted two others in connection with the abduction and murder of Margaret Hassan , the Irish-born aid worker kidnapped in Iraq in 2004 . Mustafa Salman, charged with aiding and abetting the kidnappers after Hassan's purse and identification papers were found in his home, was sentenced to [...]

Several activist groups have sued the attorney general of Indonesia for dropping corruption charges against former President Suharto . Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh dismissed the charges last month because of the former dictator's health. The lawsuits — filed by the Indonesian Association of Legal Attorneys and Human Rights Counselors, the Advocacy Team for the [...]

The US Defense Department has decided to omit references to common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions , which bans "cruel treatment and torture" and "humiliating and degrading treatment" of detainees, from the new Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation and accompanying directives, an anonymous military official told the Los Angeles Times. The decision to [...]

Ali Khan : "By substituting the language of respectful negotiation for that of threats, the Bush administration is on the right track in dealing with Iran over nuclear power issues. The policy reverses the neo-conservative fantasies of defeating Iran in the battlefield. Sobered by ceaseless killings in Iraq, the Bush administration has learned a bitter [...]

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Monday that there may be more arrests in the terror investigation that led Friday to the detention and charging of 12 men and five youths suspected of being members of a terrorist cell that planned to attack targets in southern Ontario and Toronto, including – according to Monday's [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a company cannot bring a claim under s.1962(c) of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) alleging that a competitor fraudulently failed to collect sales tax on its products. In Anza v. Ideal Steal Supply Corp. , Ideal sued National Steel Supply (owned by the Anza [...]

A Chinese court has overturned a 2004 decision by the country's patent review board allowing Chinese drug companies to sell counterfeit versions of the Pfizer drug Viagra , upholding Pfizer's patent and signaling China's intent to crack down on intellectual property rights violations, an official at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court confirmed Monday. [...]

Nepal officials on Sunday released three former ministers in the cabinet of the recently-dissolved royal government after the country's Supreme Court ruled that it could find no evidence for their continued detention. Former home minister Ramesh Nath Pandev, former foreign minister Nichhya Sumshere Rana and former state information and communications minister Srish Sumshere Rana were [...]