Germany's Federal Constitutional Court on Tuesday ordered the release of Moroccan-born Mounir al-Motassadeq , who was convicted last year in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks , while appeals of the conviction are pending. Motassadeq was convicted of participating in a terrorist cell and sentenced to seven years, but both Motassadeq and prosecutors have challenged [...]

Officials from over 100 countries are meeting in Geneva this week to discuss strengthening a United Nations treaty which controls the use of tobacco products worldwide. The two-week conference is underway to determine further provisions for the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control , which went into effect last year . The WHO [...]

Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda has decided to abandon an agreement with the Vatican , prompting a major breakdown in the Slovak government with the Christian Democrat Movement (KDH) announcing it would leave the government coalition. The controversial document, which has also been criticized by the European Union , contained an "objection of conscience" clause [...]

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday criticized a Constitutional Court ruling that halted the court-martial of opposition leader Kizza Besigye on charges of possessing illegal firearms. Museveni vowed to fight the court ruling politically, even suggesting that a referendum may be used. The government has appealed the ruling to the country's supreme court. The Constitutional [...]

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has promised to target corruption in governments that deal with the bank and in the organization itself during a worldwide staff meeting. As an example, Wolfowitz cited Kenya, from which the World Bank was withholding $250 million in loans due to high-level corruption scandals in the government. Wolfowitz, the former [...]

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday announced proposed new immigration laws that would enable the government to be more selective in allowing newcomers into the country and deciding who can stay, even giving it the right to expel immigrants who do not make efforts to integrate and seek work. Sarkozy's "selected immigration" scheme will [...]

Following angry protests over the Muhammad cartoons by British Muslims in London late last week, UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke Tuesday renewed calls for the inclusion of a "glorifying terrorism" offense in the proposed Terrorism Bill still under consideration by parliament. The glorification offense was recently defeated in the House of Lords , but it [...]

A Canadian judge Monday banned foreign media from the courtroom for a long-awaited criminal trial over the use of HIV-infected blood-clotting medicine by the Canadian Red Cross in the 1980s that led to more than 1000 Canadians testing positive for the AIDS-related virus. Madam Justice Mary Lou Benotto granted the motion of prosecutors to bar [...]

Several hundred Afghan protestors demonstrating against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish, Norwegian and other European papers stormed a NATO ISAF peacekeeping base near Maymana in northwest Afghanistan manned by Norwegian troops Tuesday. Four protestors were killed and 18 were wounded after the troops opened fire. The Norwegians had previously used [...]

Five Turkish journalists went on trial Monday on charges of "insulting state judicial organs" and "trying to influence the judicial process." Prosecutors filed these charges in December for comments regarding the government's attempts to ban a conference on the alleged genocide of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in World War I. If convicted, [...]