US Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) , chairman of the House Armed Services Committee , has said that the final version of the 2006 defense spending bill will likely contain a ban on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects and a requirement to use proper interrogation techniques. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) , a [...]

A Chilean appeals court on Wednesday stripped former dictator Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution for the disappearance of an additional 29 leftists under his regime. The ruling allows the 29 cases to be joined with nine others for which Pinochet was previously indicted and declared fit to stand trial . The kidnappings were part [...]

A nonpartisan group that tracks the records of federal government personnel has sued the Bush administration for withholding the names and job information of about 900,000 civilian employees. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) filed a complaint Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act . TRAC alleged that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has [...]

Iraqi Special Tribunal Chief Justice Rizgar Mohammed Amin on Wednesday adjourned proceedings in the Saddam Hussein trial until December 21 in order to avoid holding hearings during the upcoming parliamentary elections. The court held a brief session Wednesday, hearing testimony from two prosecution witnesses who recounted their experiences during the 1982 massacre in Dujail . [...]

A series of not guilty verdicts returned by a federal jury Tuesday for former Florida professor Sami Al-Arian on terrorism charges is being called a major defeat for law enforcement officials. Al-Arian was indicted for allegedly supporting terrorists, but the jury found him not guilty on the most serious charges, including conspiring to kill people [...]

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) ruled Wednesday that Microsoft breached antitrust rules and ordered the company to pay a $32 million fine and offer multiple versions of its Windows operating system because the automatic inclusion of Microsoft programs with Windows has hurt consumers. Microsoft said the decision could force it to pull Windows out [...]

Alexander Vershbow , the US ambassador to South Korea, on Wednesday called North Korea a "criminal regime" that is involved in arms sales, drug trafficking and currency forgery. Vershbow's comments came as he was explaining why the US has imposed economic sanctions against the country and follow North Korea's warnings that it could walk out [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down two decisions Wednesday, including one in Lockhart v. US , where the court held that the federal government can offset Social Security benefits to collect outstanding student loan debt even if the debt has been owed for over 10 years. The Court considered the appeal of James Lockhart, a [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Wednesday sentenced Miroslav Bralo , a former Bosnian Croat soldier, to 20 years in jail. Bralo pleaded guilty to murder, rape and torture charges stemming from the 1993 Bosnian war. He had initially pleaded not guilty , but later changed his plea and ICTY Judge Iain [...]

Proceedings in the Saddam Hussein trial continued Wednesday without the former president in the courtroom, after Hussein promised not to return to an "unjust court". There was a delay in proceedings Wednesday at the Iraqi High Criminal Court (formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal ) while judges decided whether to proceed without Hussein. Under Iraqi law, [...]