Iran's hard-line Guardian Council Sunday rejected all reformist candidates in the upcoming presidential election, disqualifying more than 1,000 potential candidates. Just six conservative candidates were selected to run in the election, prompting a crisis meeting by reform groups who threatened to boycott the election. The decision by the Guardian Council parallels a move last year [...]

United Nations Director of the Electoral Assistance Division Carina Perelli said Sunday that Lebanese politicians agree that electoral reform must be a top priority after the upcoming parliamentary elections, the first without a Syrian military presence in 30 years. When the Lebanese go to the polls in four rounds of voting between May 29 and [...]

The United Nations has condemned the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees by US military forces and called on the military to allow an investigation by human rights officials inside Afghanistan. The Sunday statement comes in response to a New York Times article Friday that detailed repeated abuse by US soldiers and the brutal deaths of [...]

One of Saddam Hussein's top aides, Ghazi Hammud al-Obeidi, was released from custody by Iraqi authorities Sunday for health reasons. Al-Obeidi, who has a terminal form of stomach cancer, was included on the US list of the top 55 Baath Party members wanted in connection to crimes committed by Saddam's party, which the FBI released [...]

Mahmoud Ezzat, secretary-general of outlawed Egyptian opposition group Muslim Brotherhood , was arrested by Egyptian authorities early Sunday. Egyptian police say that Ezzat, the fourth ranking member of the Brotherhood, is the highest profile member arrested since 1996. Authorities claim that the arrest is a warning to all opposition groups who are opposed to the [...]

British Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the commander in charge of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment troops in Iraq, faces the possibility of court martial and jail time for his alleged involvement in the death of a detainee by forces under his command in 2003. Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel clerk, was arrested by troops in the regiment [...]

A federal jury in Illinois has rejected a Muslim group’s claim that city officials violated their civil rights by blocking its 2001 plans to turn a vacant Christian church into a mosque. The Al Salam Mosque Foundation argued that the Chicago suburb of Palos Heights discriminated against the group based on their religion and later [...]

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano Friday vetoed a series of bills that would have prohibited illegal immigrants from receiving child care assistance, instate tuition benefits and given the state police power to enforce federal immigration laws. Supporters of the tuition bill, including sponsor Tom Boone , contend it is wrong to let immigrant students take advantage [...]

The Texas Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment Saturday that would ban same-sex marriages . The measure will be presented to voters in the state's November elections, and, if passed, will amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Read the Texas Senate press release on the [...]

US District Court Judge Martin Jenkins ruled Friday that there was not enough evidence to sustain many of the counts against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko . In a complex trial that ended nearly one year ago, Lazarenko was convicted on 29 counts of extortion and laundering money through California banks. Fifteen of the [...]