Former Bosnian Croat soldier Miroslav Bralo, on trial for war crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on Tuesday. Bralo, also known as Cicko, had been charged in the original indictment with nine counts of breaches of the Geneva conventions [...]
A top adviser to the military commissions trying the 12 Guantanamo detainees charged with war crimes said Tuesday that he did not think any of the charges were serious enough to warrant a death sentence. Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway , Legal Adviser to the Appointing Authority in the DOD Office of Military Commissions, indicated that [...]
Leading Tuesday's international brief, UN spokesman Penangnini Toure has announced that two UN peacekeepers serving in the UN Mission to Burundi peacekeeping force were found guilty of breaking the UN's new, strict code governing sexual conduct of peacekeeping personnel while on assignment. Toure said that the two men were found guilty of paying for sex [...]
According to a top military general in Turkey, the US has given orders to capture rebel members of the Turkish terrorist organization, the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in Iraq. The PKK has been fighting the Ankara government since 1984 and Ankara recently urged the US government to take action against the more than 3,000 militant [...]
AP is reporting that a senior administration official has said that US President George Bush will announce his nominee for the US Supreme Court this evening at 9:00 PM ET. AP has more. The latest speculation has centered around Alabama-born US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Edith Clement as the most likely choice to [...]
According to the attorney for Rev. Jerry Falwell , the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday dismissed a Campaign Legal Center complaint against the evangelist in a 6-0 decision. According to the Campaign Legal Center, Jerry Falwell and two associated, tax-exempt nonprofit organizations broke election laws when they stated that, "voting for principle this year [...]
The African Union introduced its own plan for expansion of the UN Security Council on Monday, despite ongoing negotiations that would give Africa permanent representation on the council and opposition by the US, Russia, and China to the so-called G-4 plan. This plan, proposed by Germany, Japan, Brazil, and India would put 10 new nations [...]
Iraq detailed concerns about corruption and violence delaying reconstruction as it submitted a list of its most pressing rebuilding needs to international donors on Monday. Concerns about graft and insurgent violence have meant delays and have resulted in only a fraction of the funds committed to rebuilding being put to use. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim [...]
Despite approval of a military tribunal by the US courts and Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock , lawyers for Australian terror suspect David Hicks are looking to the US federal courts to get his trial moved to the civilian system. Hicks' US military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, says the US government is "set up to fail" [...]
According to a conservative source familiar with the nomination discussions, White House officials have stated President Bush will not nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the US Supreme Court. Conservative activists had protested Gonzales as a potential nominee, criticizing his stances on abortion and racial preference issues as [...]