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 [...]

In a historic step for ex-communist Romania and Bulgaria, the two countries Monday signed an accession treaty with the European Union (EU) which should lead to them joining the bloc in 2007. They were left out of last year's EU enlargement from 15 to 25, including the incorporation of eight ex-communist countries, because they were [...]

Iraqi politicians again delayed naming a government on Monday, prolonging a three-month political vacuum in the country. Jawad al-Maliki, a top member of the main Shiite alliance that won January's elections, said wrangling over appointments to key ministries had put off Monday's expected announcement of a proposed cabinet. Shiites, Kurds, and Sunnis are all especially [...]