The European Union on Thursday banned the trade of instruments "that have no use other than for capital punishment or torture" according to a European Commission statement. Banned goods include belts that shock with electricity, electric chairs and guillotines. Strict controls will also be imposed on other items, such as leg irons and electric shock [...]

The Dutch government said Thursday that police in more than a dozen countries have confiscated computers and made arrests in an illegal file-swapping sweep led by US authorities. The raids occurred Wednesday in the Netherlands, Australia, Israel, Germany, South-Korea, Norway, France, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Poland, Canada and Hungary, said a spokeswoman for the Dutch Finance [...]

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso Thursday called for a "period of reflection" on the proposed European constitution , now largely in political limbo, in order to "reconnect with our citizens and stimulate a genuine, wide-ranging – but focused – debate." Barroso said "no" votes by France and the Netherlands would be respected , but [...]

Reporting on their weekend visit to Guantanamo , lawmakers told the US House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that conditions at the facility were better than expected. Committee Chair Duncan Hunter (R-CA) said the hearings should lay to rest "irresponsible allegations" about poor conditions there. Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the general in charge of [...]

Despite the Australian government's recently-announced changes to the system , Amnesty International said Thursday in a new report that Australia's asylum policy is still "tragically flawed" . AI says the controversial policy of mandatory administrative detention results in "prolonged and potentially indefinite" detentions for those seeking relief from human rights violations. While it said new [...]

Robert Weiner, a former public affairs aide in the Clinton White House and now head of a Washington, DC media relations firm , said in an op-ed in Thursday's Boston Globe that the upcoming trial of Saddam Hussein "could easily backfire and go haywire from the US government's point of view". Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim [...]

Just days after filing a federal antitrust lawsuit against rival Intel, Advanced Micro Designs (AMD) has filed two similar suits against Intel in Japan. The company announced Thursday that its Japanese arm, AMD Japan, had made two claims in Tokyo High Court and Tokyo District Court against Intel KK , Intel's Japanese subsidiary. Japan's Fair [...]

Wire services are reporting that former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers , convicted of fraud in March for his part in an $11 billion accounting scandal, will forfeit as much as $45 million worth of personal assets in a settlement of related civil charges. The deal, announced by the New York Attorney General's office Thursday, will [...]

TIME magazine said in a statement Thursday that it will turn over notes by reporter Matthew Cooper to a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's name despite Cooper's own willingness to go to jail rather than provide them. After the US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear an appeal by Cooper and [...]

Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin, Sudan's justice minister, has rejected calls for the extradition of 10 suspects to face charges for war crimes in Darfur before the the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Yassin said the men are already on trial in a Sudanese court , where they have pleaded not guilty . Rights groups [...]