Khmer Rouge were not bad people, former leader tells court
Nuon Chea denies responsibility for deaths of 1.7 million people in Cambodia during the 1970s at UN-backed tribunal
A former leader of Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime has told a court he and his comrades were not "bad people", denying responsibility for the deaths of 1.7 million people during their 1970s rule and blaming Vietnam for any atrocities.
Nuon Chea's defiant statements came as a UN-backed tribunal began questioning him and two other Khmer Rouge leaders in court for the first time.
The long-awaited trial began late last month with opening statements, and this week the court is expected to focus on charges involving the forced movement of people and crimes against humanity. After the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, they began moving an estimated 1 million people, including hospital patients, from the capital into the countryside in an effort to create a communist agrarian utopia.
Censorship row fuels public's fears over Egyptian election
Newspaper article which criticised military ruler is banned
As Egyptians await the final results of their first free elections in decades, which they hope will herald a new era of freedom and openness, a censorship row has broken out at the country's newest newspaper after staff were ordered to shelve an entire print run of 20,000 copies over an article that suggested the leader of the governing Military Council could go to prison.
Employees at the Egypt Independent, an English-language weekly, were told the latest edition could not be distributed because of the final two paragraphs of an opinion piece about Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who became de facto president after the demise of Hosni Mubarak in February.
By Western standards, it would seem that United Russia won a landslide victory inSunday's election to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russia parliament. But for Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin and his system of "managed democracy," the results are nothing short of a disaster.
Gbagbo to face ICC judges for Côte d'Ivoire crimes
JAN HENNOP THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS - Dec 05 2011
Gbagbo, the first ex-president to be brought before the Hague-based court, will face four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, over violence the United Nations says left some 3 000 people dead.
His transfer to the ICC last week drew furious reaction from his supporters and set a tense backdrop for December 11 polls that had been billed as a chance to foster reconciliation in the war-weary country.
When he makes his brief initial appearance on Monday, judges will verify Gbagbo's identity, read the alleged crimes and his rights under the court's founding document, the Rome Statute.
His transfer to the ICC last week drew furious reaction from his supporters and set a tense backdrop for December 11 polls that had been billed as a chance to foster reconciliation in the war-weary country.
When he makes his brief initial appearance on Monday, judges will verify Gbagbo's identity, read the alleged crimes and his rights under the court's founding document, the Rome Statute.
Mysterious blasts, slayings suggest covert efforts in Iran
Attacks targeting nuclear scientists and sites lead some observers to believe that the U.S. and Israel are trying to derail Iran's programs.
By Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times
At an Iranian military base 30 miles west of Tehran, engineers were working on weapons that the armed forces chief of staff had boasted could giveIsrael a "strong punch in the mouth."
But then a huge explosion ripped through the Revolutionary Guard Corps base on Nov. 12, leveling most of the buildings. Government officials said 17 people were killed, including a founder of Iran's ballistic missile program, Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam.
But then a huge explosion ripped through the Revolutionary Guard Corps base on Nov. 12, leveling most of the buildings. Government officials said 17 people were killed, including a founder of Iran's ballistic missile program, Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam.
Is Kim her next challenge?
By Donald Kirk
SEOUL - Hillary Clinton would like nothing better than to wrap up her spectacular role as one of America's most successful secretaries of state than by going to North Korea and persuading North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il to return to six-party talks in return for a serious sign of willingness to give up the program.
She obliquely signaled that possibility during her historic visit to Myanmar last week, saying in an interview that she wasn't thinking of going to either North Korea or Cuba until or unless "they ever had a leader who did things like begin releasing political prisoners and on wide scale set up a system for elections and the like".
She obliquely signaled that possibility during her historic visit to Myanmar last week, saying in an interview that she wasn't thinking of going to either North Korea or Cuba until or unless "they ever had a leader who did things like begin releasing political prisoners and on wide scale set up a system for elections and the like".
That's even less likely to happen in North Korea than in Cuba, which is a downright open country compared with Kim Jong-il's fiefdom, but that doesn't mean North Korea cannot make some moves that might entice Clinton to work on going there.
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