A member of Iraq's De-Baathification Committee announced Monday that arrest warrants have been issued for former Iraqi defense minister Hazem Shaalan and 13 other former defense minister officials. Shaalan was defense minister under former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and has been charged with corruption in connection to the misappropriation of nearly $1 billion in [...]

Leading Monday's states brief, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that grandparent visitation can be awarded over the wishes of the child's parents as Ohio law requires courts to balance the best interests of the child against the parent's wishes. The decision resolved conflicting rules among the state's courts and overruled a court of [...]

The Sudanese government said Monday it had decided to allow troops from neighboring Uganda to cross its borders to chase down wanted leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army . The announcement comes one week after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for LRA leader Joseph Kony and several of his deputies on charges of [...]

A UN human rights expert Monday said the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) that will soon be trying Saddam Hussein did not meet international standards and should be replaced by an independent UN body, and criticized US and UK anti-terror laws for undermining human rights. Leandro Despouy, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on [...]

Egypt's government-financed National Council for Human Rights on Monday criticized the recent multi-candidate presidential elections for lacking real democratic competition. The government-financed council said the recently amended election law "placed very difficult restrictions on presidential hopefuls, especially independent candidates" making it very difficult for candidates to compete with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak . The group [...]

The Iraqi Electoral Commission announced Monday that Iraqi prisoners will be allowed to vote in the upcoming constitutional referendum . Officials told reporters that ballot boxes will be sent to area prisons, and all Iraqi detainees that have not been convicted of a crime will be eligible to vote; this includes ex-president Saddam Hussein . [...]

UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke Monday proposed the banning of 15 global terror organizations, submitting a draft list to Parliament of groups to be prohibited under the Terrorism Act 2000 . Clarke cited "recent events in London and elsewhere in the world" as the impetus for the proposal since "the threat posed by global terrorism [...]

The Council of Europe , Europe's top human rights organization, Monday called for the United States and Japan to set an example for other countries by abolishing capital punishment. COE Secretary General Terry Davis used World Day Against the Death Penalty to press the two countries and Russia to put an end to the death [...]

In the latest reversal for African asylum seekers heading for Europe, the north African state of Morocco Monday began deporting potential immigrants, sending a plane carrying 140 West Africans off to Senegal. A second flight carrying another 140 Senegalese was to take off for Dakar later Monday and another 600 migrants are slated for deportation [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia commented Monday that the Supreme Court confirmation process was too politicized and that he would not want to experience it again. Scalia, when asked during an interview on NBC's "Today" program if he thought he could again be confirmed by the Senate, said "I don't know. I wouldn't want [...]