Mexico City mayor Lopez Obrador returned to work Monday despite government contentions that that was illegal and that he had in fact lost his job after the country's Congress lifted his immunity from prosecution earlier this month on a contempt charge. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans turned out over the weekend to demonstrate in his [...]

A Chilean court Monday freed a portion of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet's previously-frozen assets to allow the ex-dictator to pay five years of back taxes. Judge Sergio Munoz froze the assets last year after finding that Pinochet and his family put about $17 million in some 100 foreign bank accounts which were never reported [...]

Togo's electoral commission Tuesday released provisional figures indicating that ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe won Sunday's disputed presidential election, taking 60.22% of the vote as against 38.19% for opposition coalition leader Emmanuel Bob-Akitani. Allegations of fraud surrounded the poll, which was marred by violence in the capital, Lome, although not to the extent earlier predicted [...]

Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2004, US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, April 24, 2005 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Admitting that nations cannot effectively tackle the issues alone, delegates to the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Bangkok, Thailand, concluded their session Monday by pledging international cooperation and an integrated approach in international crime prevention and anti-terror efforts. Participants, numbering more than 3,000 delegates from 130 countries, admitted that the lack [...]

Senate leaders Bill Frist and Harry Reid have been meeting privately in hopes of reaching a deal in which Senate Democrats would allow confirmation of at least two of President Bush's seven disputed nominees for appellate judgeships, but only as part of a larger agreement in which Republicans would end their attack on judicial filibusters. [...]

A US investigation into the accidental shooting death of an Italian agent in Iraq by American soldiers has cleared the troops of the wrongdoing, an Army official said Monday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official also said that the troops will not be disciplined in the matter, but that the Italian government disagrees with [...]

Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, the suspected leader of al Qaeda in Spain, has denied any connection to Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta , as well as accusations that he helped arrange a planning meeting between Atta and another suspected Sept. 11 hijacker. Barakat Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, is the prime suspect in the [...]

The US has indicted Haji Bashir Noorzai, an accused Afghan heroin kingpin, in a massive narcotics conspiracy involving Afghanistan's former Taliban regime . US Attorney David Kelley announced the indictment against Noorzai, one the world's most wanted drug kingpins . The seven-page indictment alleges Noorzai of leading an international trafficking ring based in Afghanistan and [...]

The Justice Department and the SEC are close to announcing a settlement with bankrupt cable television provider Adelphia Communications Corp. over the company's accounting issues. Under the terms of the settlement, Adelphia would pay $715 million into a compensation fund. The Rigas family, the founders of Adelphia, will also settle with the DOJ and SEC [...]