A new report released Monday by a UN panel accused Benon Sevan , the former head of the UN Oil-for-Food Program , of taking almost $150,000 in bribes. The Third Interim Report by the Independent Inquiry Committee also urged UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to lift Sevan's UN-granted immunity for the "purposes of a criminal [...]

President George W. Bush Monday signed into law a massive energy bill while in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The 1,725-page legislation , finalized after weeks of compromise between the US House and Senate , provides $14.5 billion in energy tax breaks, mostly to companies who deal in traditional sources of energy. It also provides funds for [...]

The family of Saddam Hussein said in a statement Monday that they have granted Khalil Dulaimi, an Iraqi lawyer already serving on his defense team, the exclusive right to represent the deposed Iraqi president, dissolving his earlier Jordan-based legal team. Dulaimi previously demanded that the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) punish a man for an alleged [...]

Muktar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed and Yassin Hassan Omar, three of the primary suspects in the failed July 21 London bombings appeared in court on Monday after being charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and possessing or making explosives. Each suspect faces a maximum of life in prison for each charge. They were ordered [...]

An extradition treaty between Pakistan and Britain is in the "final stages", according to a spokesman for the Pakistani government. The official declined to elaborate on how many wanted persons may be traded between the two countries after the treaty is finalized. No such formal agreement between the two countries presently exists, but previous informal [...]

Japan's House of Concilors , the upper house of the Japanese parliament, voted 125-108 Monday to defeat a plan by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to privatize the nation's postal service , Thirty members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party either voted against or failed to vote on the plan. Koizumi, keeping to an earlier promise, [...]

Former UK Home Secretary David Blunkett lined up over the weekend behind British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his new proposals for changing Britain's anti-terrorism laws , saying that parliament, not the courts, should be primarily responsible for protecting the security of the country:If the judiciary say 'We think that parliament was wrong and therefore [...]

A Yemeni court on Monday sentenced six men to jail for planning to blow up the British and Italian embassies and the French cultural center in Sanaa. The six men, believed to be members of al Qaeda, received sentences of three months to four years in prison. Two other men were acquitted. Yemen has captured [...]

Noaman Gomaa, a law professor who is one of two top challengers to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's upcoming September elections , promised Sunday to repeal Egypt's controversial emergency law and release political prisoners if elected. The law was passed in 1981 after the assassination of Anwar Sadat and has drawn complaints from rights [...]

Officials in Qatar on Monday launched a new human rights department which will function as a branch of the country's Interior Ministry . The department will work closely with the National Human Rights Committee, a state-financed human rights watchdog, as well as other embassies, the labor department, the ministry of civil services affairs and the [...]