Leading Friday's international brief, the South Sudan legislature has been inaugurated, marking a key step in the development of a functioning government for the now autonomous southern region of Sudan. In accordance with the January 9 Comprehensive Peace Agreements , South Sudan will create an independent government that will work together with the main Sudanese [...]

Algeria's proposed Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation was approved by over 97 percent of the vote in Thursday's referendum as part of an effort to end a 13-year civil war in the country . Nationwide voter turnout topped 80 percent, but was skewed by some regions having near total participation and others hardly any [...]

Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro announced Friday the approval of three new arrest warrants in connection for purported CIA operatives with the kidnapping of a radical Muslim in 2003 in Milan. A total of 22 purported CIA operatives are now sought by Italian police. Italy may request extradition for those accused, but US cooperation in such [...]

Sen. John Warner (R-VA) , chairman of the US Senate Armed Forces Committee, said Thursday that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has promised to give "immediate consideration" to concerns about the increased detentions and accidental shootings of journalists covering the conflict in Iraq. Representatives from Reuters and the Committee to Protect Journalists have complained to [...]

US Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) was ordered on Thursday to appear in a Texas court on October 21 for his initial appearance in connection with charges that he violated Texas election law . DeLay is accused of conspiring to use corporate donations to support candidates for the Texas legislature; state law allows corporate donations to [...]

US military officials said Thursday in testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee that they are confident that Iraq will vote to approve the draft constitution in the upcoming October 15 referendum, but warned that approval is "critically important" to avoid a descent into anarchy. Under Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law , a majority must [...]

US Army Reserve Colonel Janis Karpinski , former US commander of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison , said Friday that the US military has done little to ensure that abuses first exposed by the Abu Ghraib photos are not continuing in US-run facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay . In an interview with BBC's Today [...]

Government officials in the United Kingdom are rethinking plans to enact a new law that would criminalize the act of "glorifying terrorism." In an interview Thursday with BBC's Today program, Prime Minister Tony Blair noted that because the proposed law needed to strike a balance between security and civil rights, it needed to be "very [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will soon issue arrest warrants for leaders of the Uganda rebel group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) , according to statements from a UN official Thursday. The LRA leaders, who have taken refuge in Congo, have been accused of raping and maiming children over the past two decades. Some diplomats believe [...]

ACLU, et al. v. DOD, et al., Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, United States District Court Southern District of New York, September 29, 2005 . Excerpt: In its most recent discussion of FOIA, the Supreme Court commented that "FOIA is often explained as a means for citizens to know what 'their Government is up to.' The [...]