France's National Assembly , the lower house of parliament, on Tuesday voted to extend emergency powers originally granted for 12 days on November 8 to combat the civil unrest that started in late October. The extension of emergency powers, approved by the French cabinet Monday will go to the Senate for a vote on Wednesday; [...]

Chief Lebanese investigative judge Elias Eid on Tuesday refused to release two former high ranking Lebanese military officials implicated in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . The two former officials – former head of Lebanese intelligence Raymond Azar and presidential guard Mustafa Hamdan – were arrested in August under recommendations of the [...]

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori lost his appeal in a Chilean court Tuesday in his legal effort to be released from custody as he fights his extradition to Peru on charges of corruption and human rights violations. Chilean officials first arrested Fujimori last week at the request of the current Peruvian government . Fujimori was [...]

Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture , on Tuesday called for unrestricted inspections of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay . The UN plans to send inspectors to Guantanamo on December 6 for a report that Nowak's team is due to complete by the end of the year, but Nowak says "if the [...]

In a meeting Tuesday with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) , Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito distanced himself from a 1985 statement in which he asserted his belief that the constitution does not guarantee a right to an abortion. The statement was made while Alito was applying for a position with the Attorney General's office during [...]

The US Senate on Tuesday passed a compromise amendment to the 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill that would curtail, but not totally cut off, Guantanamo Bay detainees' access to the federal court system to challenge their detentions. The new amendment, passed by a vote of 84-14 , was brokered by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) as a [...]

The only United Nations official to lose his job over the oil-for-food scandal has been reinstated, after an internal appellate body found that he had not violated staff rules . Joseph Stephanides was also issued a letter of apology and awarded $200,000 for emotional suffering and damage to his reputation by the UN's Joint Disciplinary [...]

The German trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel was postponed Tuesday after Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen fired one of Zundel's lawyers. Judge Meinerzhagen fired Sylvia Stolz because he believed Stolz would not defend Zundel properly, but did not set a date for the trial to reopen because a new lawyer would need sufficient time to prepare. [...]

A former Serbian soldier admitted in a special high-security court in Belgrade on Tuesday that he participated in the November 1991 execution of about 200 Croatian prisoners of war at a pig farm. The testimony by Ivan Atansijevic was the first admission by one of the 16 defendants who are being tried for the execution [...]

US District Judge Leonie Brinkema has delayed the sentencing trial of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui by one month and ordered a two-stage process to determine whether or not he will receive the death penalty, according to ruling released Tuesday. The trial, now set to begin with jury selection on February 6, and opening arguments [...]