The UN General Assembly Tuesday elected 47 member states to founding seats on the new UN Human Rights Council . The successful candidates included Russia and China, which recently have come under US criticism for restrictive human rights practices. Seats also went to Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, similarly characterized by the US and international [...]

After Iranian lawmakers on Sunday sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan threatening to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Annan and other members of the UN Security Council failed "in their crucial responsibility to resolve differences peacefully" with regard to Iran's nuclear program, Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani said Tuesday that Iran's [...]

A 13-member delegation of European Union officials arrived in Washington on Tuesday and began meeting with Bush administration officials, members of the US House and Senate and other officials in Washington as part of a European Parliament inquiry into whether European countries were involved in clandestine CIA prisons or flights moving suspected terrorists. According to [...]

As debate continues in Kuwait over whether to amend the country's constitution to make changes to election law, Kuwaiti information minister Anas al-Rasheed has submitted his resignation as a protest against any proposed amendments. A Kuwaiti official said that an amendment now on the table would increase the number of members of Kuwait's parliament from [...]

Nepal's government on Tuesday annulled a media ordinance promulgated by King Gyanendra during his 15-month absolute rule to muzzle press that criticized his seizure of power in February 2005. The ordinance was criticized both in Nepal and internationally as it increased punishment of journalists and banned broadcast of informative programs from independent radios. The law [...]

The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina began hearing its first genocide case Tuesday with the opening of the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged for their role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre . The men charged with violating Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina include former [...]

Less than two months after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched a $250 million lawsuit against H&R Block for fraudulently coaxing its customers into a retirement account plan that lost them money, Spitzer has amended the complaint claiming managers at the company ignored complaints from tax preparers about the misleading marketing of the Express [...]

An increasing number of small businesses are going private in order to avoid disproportionately higher costs of complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act , according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) . Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) requested the report and said it showed that regulators must find ways [...]

Estonia on Tuesday became the fifteenth nation to ratify the European Constitution . The ratification is expected to have little effect on the charter after rejections of the document by France and the Netherlands last year brought debate about the charter to a standstill, despite its approval by 12 other European countries . A spokesman [...]

An FBI investigation into the activities of former CIA Executive Director and number-three agency official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo has intensified after Foggo's resignation Monday. The FBI probe is looking into whether Foggo took steps to improperly aid his high school friend Brent R. Wilkes' company ADCS in obtaining large CIA contracts. Former California Rep. Randy [...]