Western elections observers and opposition leaders have raised doubts as to the fairness of the reelection of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev , who won 91 percent of the vote Sunday. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe blamed poor ballot counting, intimidation, multiple voting and ballot stuffing for the result, in which 77 percent [...]

Roman Catholic Church officials have announced their opposition to a proposal that would let sexual abuse victims file lawsuits decades after the alleged abuse occurred. Pennsylvania has a strict statute of limitations which has prevented most clergy sexual abuse cases from coming to court, but some lawmakers are following the recommendation of the Philadelphia District [...]

The ruling military junta in Myanmar on Monday reopened its constitutional-drafting convention, which has been held intermittently since 1993, in the first step in a seven-stage road map aimed at unification, democracy and free elections. The session could last as long as two months, though it is seen as unlikely that a final draft will [...]

US Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) , a Vietnam War veteran who survived capture and torture by the North Vietnamese, said Sunday that he will not concede on his demands for a ban on the use of torture to extract information from suspected terrorists. The anti-torture measure, the so-called McCain amendment , passed the Senate by [...]

Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, presiding over the trial of Saddam Hussein , on Monday allowed former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ex-Qatari Justice Minister Najib al-Nueimi to address the court on the safety of the defense lawyers involved in the trial, reversing an earlier ruling which led the defense team to walk out [...]

The British government has introduced several amendments to the proposed Terrorism Bill and will allow possible future amendments to be considered, leader of the UK Lords, Baroness Amos announced Sunday. The changes to the bill include the requirement that 'intention' be proven as an element of crime for the proposed 'glorification of a terrorist act' [...]

Monday is the first day of registration for same-sex couples to apply for a civil partnership ceremony under the UK Civil Partnership Act 2004 . The civil partnerships allowed by the Act are legally distinct from marriages in the UK and are not required to be performed in public, as is the case with traditional [...]

The trial of fourteen men alleged to belong to a terrorist group operating in Amsterdam begins Monday and is the first test of new Dutch anti-terror legislation allowing for the prosecution of individuals for "membership a criminal organisation with terrorist intent". The fourteen have been charged for their involvement in the terrorist cell group that [...]

A UK parliamentary group comprised of members from all three major British political parties meets for the first time Monday to call for a formal inquiry into whether the British government has violated international law by aiding alleged CIA rendition flights. A report from the NYU Law Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) [...]

German magazine Der Spiegel has reported that the German government has a list of at least 437 flights it suspects the US CIA operated in German airspace, landing in Berlin, Frankfurt, and US Air Base at Ramstein. The list, however, does not indicate what the CIA-operated planes carried. The report bolsters allegations that the CIA [...]