Fearing damage to historic sites, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called for action against illegal digs and looting in Iraq. Director-general Koichiro Matsuura said archeological sites as well as museums are being damaged by thefts of items. He also expressed concern that construction of new military bases might ruin ancient [...]

After meeting with lawyers from both sides earlier today , US District Judge Karon Bowdre ordered a juror replaced in the fraud trial of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy , citing health reasons that interrupted deliberations. The replacement and Bowdre's instruction to the jury that they must start their deliberations all over again will further [...]

A panel of Italian judges on Wednesday convicted 10 former Nazi SS soldiers in absentia for their roles in the 1944 massacre of over 500 Tuscan villagers . The 10 men all received life sentences after the three-judge panel deliberated for seven hours. Italian authorities began their investigation into the atrocity a few years ago [...]

Germany's Federal Administrative Court ruled Wednesday that a German army officer who refused to follow orders because he thought they would aid the US-led war in Iraq could not be forced to comply with orders that ran counter to his conscience. The soldier, who was demoted from the rank of major to captain last year, [...]

With the likely retirement of US Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the coming weeks, senior White House officials are cutting down their list of candidates and interviewing the final contending federal appeals court judges to replace him. The short list includes Judge J. Michael Luttig , Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. , and Judge John [...]

A grand jury in Washington, DC has indicted two men for the February 12 killing of Dorothy Stang , an American nun who was working in Brazil as an environmentalist. A landowner allegedly offered the two $20,000 for the killing, and faces separate charges in Brazil . It is thought that Stang's work got in [...]

With the jury still unable to reach a verdict and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy unwilling to cut a deal in his trial for accounting fraud, US District Judge Karon Bowdre summoned lawyers from both sides for a closed-door meeting Wednesday. Jurors earlier resumed deliberating after a two-day break, caused by one juror's undisclosed emergency [...]

Diplomats from various Western nations have been permitted to examine conditions at Ethiopia's largest jail for the hundreds of protestors arrested after the disputed May 15 election erupted into demonstrations and violence . Officials from Ireland, Switzerland and the US visited the facilities Wednesday and a statement from the Irish Embassy said conditions at the [...]

A Sunni spokesman said Wednesday that a list of names submitted for the fifteen full committee seats on the drafting committee for the new Iraqi constitution had been approved by the Shi'ite and Kurd politicians, despite earlier reports that the appointments had hit a snag when they were not properly endorsed by a larger Sunni [...]

A member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party said in a speech Wednesday that the International Military Tribunal for the Far East established after World War II may have unjustly tried and convicted Japanese war criminals. Lawmaker Masahiro Morioka previously enraged Japan's neighbours which suffered destruction and Japanese occupation in the conflict when he made [...]