A group of former international political leaders supporting the defense of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein called Tuesday for a UN investigation into last week's kidnapping and murder of Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi , a lawyer representing one of Hussein's co-defendants. In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella, [...]

US Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NB) introduced a package of four bills on US immigration policy Tuesday that depart from Bush administration policy. Hagel, a possible contender for the Republican nomination in the US 2008 presidential election , proposed legislation that would allow many of the 8 to 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the [...]

Britain's House of Lords on Tuesday substantially amended the Blair government's controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill . The bill outlawing incitement to religious hatred was originally proposed last year , and Prime Minister Tony Blair began pushing again for its adoption after the July bombings in London. Critics of the proposed legislation, including comedians [...]

In Tuesday's environmental law news, Judge Katherine Hayden of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled Monday that the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway could continue to operate five waste transfer stations in North Bergen NJ until at least the end of the year. The New Jeresy Department of Environmental [...]

A senior UN official said Tuesday that reported election results from the October 15 referendum ratifying the Iraqi constitution are correct. Carina Perelli, director of the UN Electoral Assistance Division , called the results "accurate" and defended the standards and controls used in the election and the subsequent audit of votes. Just days after the [...]

Former Rwandan president Pasteur Bizimungu has asked that country's high court to overturn his 15-year criminal sentence for inciting violence, embezzlement, and associating with criminals. On appeal, Bizimungu argues he was tried on charges different from those for which he was originally arrested and that his prosecution is politically motivated. First sentenced in June 2004, [...]

A Delaware Chancery Court judge on Tuesday warned that corporate directors may face US government regulation of executive pay unless they control soaring salaries and payoffs. Judge William Chandler , who ruled in August that Disney’s directors acted properly in paying $140 million to former president Michael Ovitz when he resigned in 1996, delivered a [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced Tuesday that he plans to send his top legal advisers to address state governments' concerns about the constitutionality of that country's proposed anti-terror law . Several reservations center around a legislative provision authorizing courts to detain individuals who have not been accused or convicted of any crime. Constitutional lawyers [...]

A Texas court has appointed a retired district court judge to hear a motion filed by attorneys for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) , arguing that the initial judge assigned to DeLay's case, Judge Bob Perkins , should not preside over DeLay's trial on money laundering and criminal conspiracy charges because of personal political bias. Retired [...]

Syrian ambassador to the UN Fayssal Mekdad Tuesday angrily refuted the UN-commissioned Mehlis report , which found that the Syrian government was involved in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . Speaking during a UN Security Council debate , Mekdad dismissed the report as biased, asserting it was influenced by the anti-Syrian [...]