Human Rights Watch alleged Monday in a new report that Russian kidnappings of civilians in Chechnya have become so widespread as to constitute a "crime against humanity." The report says that thousands of people have "disappeared" since the 1999 start of the Chechnyan conflict with the full knowledge of Russian authorities. Chechnya's Moscow-backed president, Alu [...]

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed the General Assembly Monday on his plans for UN and international reform. Annan stressed that the proposals in his report entitled In Larger Freedom , released Sunday, were a complete package and that other reforms should not be added piecemeal. Institutionally, Annan called for expanding the membership of the Security [...]

US District Judge James Whittemore of the Middle District of Florida has scheduled a hearing for 3 PM Monday afternoon to consider a request to have feeding resumed for Terri Schiavo . President Bush signed congressional legislation early Monday morning to move her case into federal court. Terri Schiavo's parents have asked the court to [...]

In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, March 21, 2005 on international and UN policy goals]. Excerpt from Annan's remarks introducing the report to the UN General Assembly: What I am proposing amounts to a comprehensive strategy. It gives equal weight and attention to the three great [...]

Senior anti-terrorism experts in the Australian police are lobbying for the establishment of a court that would deal exclusively with terrorist trials and include such elements of a French-style civil law system as judicial interrogation in order to handle terrorism cases more effectively. Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock confirmed Sunday that the Government was aware of [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that communications and media giant Time Warner has agreed to pay $300 million to settle charges alleging that it overstated online advertising revenue and the number of its AOL Internet subscribers and committed other securities frauds. The Commission's AOL complaint asserted thatThe company artificially inflated the number [...]

A former lawyer for Australian terror suspect David Hicks told a major law conference in Australia Monday that US military videotapes from the terror detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be “as explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib” if they were ever released. In his address to LawAsia Downunder 2005 Stephen Kenny said that [...]

The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a case on whether President Bush overstepped his authority when he appointed a federal judge while the Senate was on a short recess. Three appeals sought to challenge the temporary appointment of former Alaba,a Attorney General William Pryor to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday declined to hear an appeal from alleged "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui , the only person formally charged by the US government with criminal complicity in the September 11 terror attacks. Moussaoui had challenged a US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal ruling that the government could insist on the death penalty [...]

President Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan ordered the country's Central Election Commission and Supreme Court Monday to investigate allegations of fraud in the country's recent parliamentary elections that have spawned weeks of protests from opposition groups. The original elections were held in late February and run-off elections were held March 13. Both sets of elections are [...]