All four ex-ministers were accused of calling for the massacre of Tutsis in meetings and speeches Two former Rwandan ministers have been sentenced to 30 years in jail by the UN war crimes tribunal for involvement in Rwanda’s genocide in 1994. Former civil service minister Prosper Mugiraneza and former trade minister Justin Mugenzi were convicted of complicity to commit genocide and incitement... 

Saudi King Abdullah Saudi King Abdullah said on Sunday that women in Saudi Arabia are now allowed to vote, run in municipal elections and be appointed to the consultative Shura Council, local media reported. “Because we refuse to marginalize women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others… to involve women... 

Wall St protests: Police harsh, media silent? Some 80 people have been arrested in lower Manhattan as the ongoing “Occupy Wall Street” protest enters its second week. Police have been harsh in quelling the rally. However, not much of their violence is being reported by the mainstream media. Tensions are rising near Wall Street, where hundreds of demonstrators fed up with the existing financial... 

A 24-year-old Nigerian rapist has successfully avoided deportation from the UK after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that expelling him would violate his right to family life. Despite not having a partner or children, the court ordered the British government to allow him to stay and cover £3,500 of his legal bills. The rapist, identified only as AA, had been convicted at the age of... 

Anti-government protesters, one of them holding Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) adopted flag, shout slogans against the regime during a demonstration. In Libya, new government forces are turning up the heat on Colonel Gaddafi’s remaining supporters. Meanwhile, some Western leaders are facing charges at home over the legacy of their military intervention. ­The defiant loyalists... 

The world’s largest sperm bank has started turning down redheaded donors because there is too little demand for their sperm. Ole Schou, Cryos’s director, said that there had been a surge in donations in recent years, allowing the facility to become much more picky about its donors. “There are too many redheads in relation to demand,” he told told Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet.... 

Supporters of African National Congress (ANC) Youth League leader Julius Malema in Johannesburg. Julius Malema, the outspoken youth leader of the African National Congress, has been found guilty of “hate speech” for singing the song “Shoot the Boer,” which refers to white farmers. The lyrics of the controversial song “Shoot the Boer” which just got banned can be... 

A recent spate of attacks by Roma youths on white people has escalated racial tension in the remote reaches of the Czech Republic. In a region plagued by unemployment, some fear the far right could profit politically. The region of Sluknovsky vybezek is a crooked finger of land protruding from the northern reaches of Bohemia into Germany, not far from the city of Dresden. The inhabitants of the small... 

Russia put its growing ties with Israel to the test on Monday by announcing plans to back a controversial Palestinian bid to win UN statehood despite strong resistance from the Jewish state. The decision does not come as an outright surprise but still underscores the growing diplomatic isolation Israel finds itself in following a violent new flare-up in relations with regional powers Egypt and Turkey. Russia’s... 

Former French President Jacques Chirac A French lawyer and former aide to Jacques Chirac says the ex-president of the country and his prime minister received millions of euros in cash from despotic leaders of African nations. Robert Bourgi, who served as an adviser to Chirac and former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin before switching sides and joining the conservative camp of French President... 

A former US government scientist pleaded guilty on Wednesday to attempted espionage for passing top-secret national defence information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. The plea deal calls for Stewart Nozette, 54, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, to receive a sentence of 13 years in prison. The judge said at the hearing that he would accept the guilty plea and would impose... 

In December 2008 a group of Muslims launched an unprovoked attack on a young Frenchman on board a bus in Paris. As they beat him, they shouted insults like “fils de pute” (son of a bi**h) and “Français de merde” (French sh*t). Interestingly, French mainstream media reports mention the first of these insults but not the second. The whole incident was captured by the bus’s... 

United Nations human rights watchdog has accused Australia of racism over its treatment of boat people and Aborigines. School students are being targeted in a major new push to force acceptance of multiculturalism by “embedding” it in the national curriculum. Young Australians will be trained in “cultural competency” during classes as part of the Gillard Government’s plan... 

Lt. General Ismail Hakki Pekin, the head of the Intelligence Department of the Turkish General Staff. Lt. General Ismail Hakki Pekin, the head of the Intelligence Department of the Turkish General Staff, has been arrested pending trial over an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Pekin was arrested on the order of a Turkish court on Monday, AFP reported. In an apparently related development, 22... 

Former French President Jacques Chirac The trial of former French President Jacques Chirac has opened in his absence in Paris on charges of misusing public funds during his time as mayor of the city. Chirac’s lawyers had last week submitted a medical report to the court, explaining that the 78-year-old is in a state of vulnerability that makes him unable to answer questions about his past, the...