UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Thursday that Kosovo has not moved quickly enough to implement international standards of human rights, democraticization, ethnic tolerance and law enforcement. The Serbian province, under UN administration since the end of the Kosovo conflict in 1999 that forced out the Yugoslav military and allowed the return of hundreds of thousands [...]

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has complained to Washington that the United States violated its sovereignty in a recent air strike on a village near the Afghanistan border. The failed January 13 attack by a CIA Predator drone was intended for key Al Qaeda operatives but killed 18 Pakistani villagers. In Islamabad, some legislators are calling [...]

France's highest judicial authority will rule on a controversial measure requiring French history teachers to stress the positive aspects of French colonialism. President Jacques Chirac announced Thursday that he would refer the law , passed in February 2005, to France's Constitutional Court after stating his opposition earlier this month. Criticism surrounded the law even before [...]

CNN is reporting that Democratic Senator John Kerry, joined by Edward Kennedy and perhaps other Democrats will attempt a filibuster to block the US Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito . Kerry, currently in Switzerland attending the World Economic Forum, is trying to raise support for the strategy, which would block a confirmation vote. [...]

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Thursday that ChoicePoint will be required to pay $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million to customers affected by last year's identity theft incident as a result of making false and misleading statements to consumers regarding their information safety policies. The FTC charged ChoicePoint with violating the [...]

A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought in 2004 by two US Army National Guard soldiers that claimed the Army fraudulently induced them to enlist by failing to inform them that they could be forced to remain on active duty indefinitely. Judge Royce Lamberth of the US DC District Court ruled one case moot [...]

US Senate Democrats Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Ken Salazar (D-CO) Thursday urged US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special counsel to lead the investigation of Jack Abramoff and his allegedly corrupt connections with more than 20 Republican congressmen, staffers, and White House aides. Though Schumer and Salazar said that the US Department of [...]

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin signed a mine safety bill Thursday S. 247 requiring mines to provide wireless emergency communicators, tracking devices and extra air supplies to their miners. The West Virginia Legislature on Tuesday unanimously approved the bill , which also sets up a new accident rapid-response system and establishes fines for mines that [...]

Khalil Dulaimi, chief defense lawyer for Saddam Hussein said Thursday following up on earlier defense statements that the ousted Iraqi leader intends "very soon" to sue US President George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and British PM Tony Blair in the new International Criminal Court for abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib and authorizing [...]

An effort to increase the detention period for terror suspects in the UK from 28 days to 60 days was defeated Wednesday in the House of Lords by a vote of 210-108. Under current law , terror suspects can be held without charge for 14 days, and a new anti-terror proposal would increase the detention [...]