The US Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments on whether unsworn non-testimonial statements made by crime victims to 911 operators or to police officers at crime scenes are inadmissible at trials of criminal defendants. In the cases of Davis v. Washington and Hammon v. Indiana , the Court focused on whether the rights of [...]

A Somali advocacy group claimed Monday that the US Navy was illegally present in Somali waters when its ships launched an unprovoked attack on a small vessel over the weekend, taking twelve occupants into custody. The Navy said the vessel was being investigated for suspected piracy when it unexpectedly fired shots at the USS Cape [...]

A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Frank Quattrone , one of the dot-com era's most prominent investment bankers, on charges of obstruction of justice and witness tampering on the grounds that the jury instructions were erroneous, court officials said Monday. Quattrone, who made as much as $120 million in a single year [...]

A District Court in Belgrade said Monday it would close an outstanding case against late Yugoslav ex-president Slobodan Milosevic for "organizing the murder" of former Serbian president Ivan Stambolic, according to private news agency BETA . A court spokesman said the case, which opened in 2004 , will be closed as soon as a death [...]

The US Supreme Court declined certiorari in several high-profile appeals Monday but did not agree to consider any new cases. In Tucker v. United States, the Court refused to consider the appeal of former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker , who wanted to withdraw his 1998 guilty plea to tax conspiracy in connection with the [...]

As anticipated , Thomas Lubanga , founder of the militant Union of Patriotic Congolese , appeared in the International Criminal Court at The Hague Monday, accused of using child soldiers in the violence-plagued Ituri district . In court the defendant confirmed his identity and heard his rights before he refused to hear the charges against [...]

Trial proceedings began Monday in Turkey for Syrian al Qaeda militant Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa , who is charged with masterminding and securing finances for the November 2003 bombings in Istanbul . Security forces say that al-Saqa was a bomb making expert and a top figure in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in [...]

Leading Monday's international brief, an Afghani man is on trial for criminal charges punishable by death related to his conversion from Islam to Christianity over 16 years ago while working for a Christian aid organization in Pakistan. Abdul Rahman has been charged with converting to a "false religion" under Afghanistan's criminal law, which incorporates Islamic [...]

Libyan leader Colonel Muhamar Gaddafi has declared that Saddam Hussein remains the legal leader of Iraq, citing the US-led invasion of the country as "a war waged against the wishes of the United Nations." In an interview with an Italian television news program, Gaddafi, who having gained power in 1969 is the Arab world's longest [...]

International election observers said Monday that this weekend's elections in Belarus , which secured a third term for Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko , were "severely flawed" and failed to meet democratic standards. Lukashenko, whom the Bush administration has referred to as "the last dictator in Europe" was credited with 82.6 percent of the vote, citing [...]