Lebanese Defense Minister Elias al-Murr announced Thursday that Lebanon will ask the UN Security Council to extend for another six months its investigation into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri . UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis was scheduled to deliver his final report on the investigation on December 12, after which he [...]

New trials have begun in Uzbekistan for fifty-eight people charged with terrorism, religious extremism and other serious crimes stemming from the death of as many as 1,000 villagers in the Uzbek city of Andijan, the country's Supreme Court announced in a statement Thursday. This second round of trials follows the government's successful prosecution of 15 [...]

Members of the European Parliament on Thursday criticized EU leaders for failing to push the United States on recent reports of a secret network of CIA prisons in Europe used to hold suspected terrorists. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has, on behalf of the EU, written to Washington seeking clarification on the alleged prison system, [...]

The Connecticut General Assembly passed a tough new campaign finance law Thursday that strictly limits campaign contributions for all state offices and creates a public campaign finance system. Once enacted, the bill will ban political contributions from lobbyists, their spouses, and state contractors, limit contributions of political action committees, and close a loophole that previously [...]

Samsung , the world's largest maker of computer memory chips, has pleaded guilty to criminal antitrust charges and was ordered pay a $300 million fine, the second largest fine in a criminal antitrust case, for conspiring to fix the price of its personal computer chips. The South Korean-based company was charged with artificially inflating the [...]

Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade has called for the creation of an African tribunal that would hear abuse charges against the continent's "dictators", similar to those leveled against former Chad President Hissene Habre . Wade's comments come as Habre resides in Senegal awaiting a decision from the African Union as to whether he must be extradited [...]

Australia's Labor Party leader Kim Beazley said Thursday that the controversial sedition provisions set to be included in Australia's new anti-terror laws lower the country "to the standard of North Korea, Syria and Cuba." On Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard bowed to pressure from back-benchers and agreed to several amendments to the proposed anti-terror [...]

Iraq Interior Minister Bayan Jabr on Thursday fired Nouri al-Nouri, the country's senior inspector handling human rights issues, in connection with a torture scandal involving dozens of prisoners at a Baghdad prison, according to an Iraqi official. Al-Nouri, the ministry's lead inspector for corruption and human rights violations since Iraq regained sovereignty in June 2004, [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has warned that the Nepalese government and Maoist rebels must take "steps towards lasting peace" in order to avoid "grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law" being committed by both sides. Arbour also cautioned that Nepal faces a real possibility of a full-scale armed conflict [...]

Nigeria's Kaduna Code of Conduct Tribunal on Thursday began legal proceedings against Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of the oil-rich state Bayelsa , on charges of corruption. The tribunal, an anti-corruption body that has the power to strip elected officials of immunity, has begun investigating alleged failures by Alamieyeseigha to declare properties and bank accounts. He fled [...]