A 63-year old Sri Lankan man has been released on bail after his initial arrest on charges of attempted to sell his two young granddaughters to foreigners after their home was destroyed, and their mother killed, by the tsunami in December. The UN and international relief agencies have expressed concern about child trafficking in the [...]

The Chilean Court of Appeals on Wednesday approved bail of $3500 for former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet . Pinochet is being tried on nine counts of kidnapping, and one count of homicide which are alleged to have occured during in Chile during his 1973-1990 dictatorship. The court also rejected a request by an Argentine judge [...]

The Russian Duma , the lower house of parliament, approved a bill Wednesday which allows the government to ban foreign visitors who show "disrespect" to the country. Anyone found by a court to have offended Russia's "generally accepted spiritual, cultural and social values" may be barred from entering the country, although the bill does not [...]

The White House announced Wednesday that the US has officially ended its search for biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons in Iraq. White House press secretary Scott McClellan stated that while there is no longer an active search for weapons, "There may be a couple, a few people, that are focused on that," but that "a [...]

Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawai acknowledged for the first time Tuesday in a televised address that in "some pockets" of Iraq people would not be able to participate in the national assembly vote scheduled for January 30. The acknowledgement came in the wake of a growing number of attacks against election workers, facilities and [...]

In addition to its long-awaited sentencing ruling in Booker , the US Supreme Court Wednesday handed down two immigration-related decisions. In Jama v. INS , the Court narrowly held 5-4 (Souter, Stevens, Ginsburg and Breyer JJ. dissenting) that a refugee living in the US – in this instance a Somalian from a country with no [...]

Leading Wednesday's international brief, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez issued a presidential decree Tuesday creating a presidential and national land commission to implement the provisions of Venezuela's four year old land reform law. The law, called Plan Zamora , focuses on breaking up the large estates owned by a minute percentage of the overall Venezuelan population. [...]

AP is reporting that the Supreme Court has ruled that federal judges have been improperly adding time to criminals' sentences, a decision that puts in doubt longtime sentencing rules. 10:32 AM ET – The ruling is in the consolidated cases of US v. Booker and US v. Fanfan . The questions presented to the Court [...]

The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it has won a court order directing six advertising companies to stop sending sexually explicit spam e-mails. Read the original FTC complaint . The order was handed down January 3 by a federal judge in Las Vegas. The companies had agreed to stop the e-mails even before the [...]

Defense arguments begin Wednesday in the military trial of Spc. Charles Graner , charged with multiple counts in connection with the highly-publicized abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib {JURIST Hot Topic] prison in Iraq. Defense attorney Guy Womack is expected to lead witnesses in support of his contention that Graner was simply following orders, [...]