ARUSHA, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - A former Rwandan minister accused of committing genocide denied all charges at his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday.

Former planning minister Augustin Ngirabatware is also accused of committing crimes against humanity and breaching the Geneva convention, the UN court said in a statement.

HELSINKI, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - A Finnish court on Friday ruled against three women who had sued two tobacco companies for promoting 'light' cigarettes in the 1970s without informing consumers of the health risks.

ABIDJAN, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - The trial of seven people accused of complicity in the dumping of poisonous waste at public sites across Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan two years ago, killing 17 people, was suspended on Wednesday.

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - A former Rwandan minister suspected of having played a major role in the 1994 genocide was Wednesday transferred from Germany to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

BERLIN, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - The US military said Wednesday that a private is to be tried over the death of Army Sergeant Juwan Johnson, beaten to death by a gang in Germany in July 2005.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Troubled pop singer Britney Spears is ready to go on trial to clear her name for allegedly driving without a California license, her lawyer J. Michael Flanagan said in court on Wednesday.

CAIRO, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - The former head of restoration in Islamic Cairo and two other Egyptian culture ministry officials were jailed for 10 years on Wednesday for receiving bribes from contractors, a judicial source said.

MOSCOW, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Four men will go on trial in a military court on October 15 in connection with the murder of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, a court spokesman said on Tuesday, news agencies reported.

DUBAI, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - A Dubai court will deliver its verdict on two Britons accused of having sex on a beach in the boombing Gulf emirate on October 16, legal sources said on Tuesday.

MADRID, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Spain's Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted on appeal 14 of the 20 men who were sentenced jail in February for belonging to an Islamic terrorist group suspected of planning to blow up a courthouse.

The National Audience, Spain's top anti-terrorism court, had sentenced the 14 to prison terms from seven to 11 years for membership in an Al-Qaeda inspired cell.

CAIRO, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday pardoned an outspoken editor sentenced to two months in jail after his newspaper published rumours on Mubarak's health, state-run MENA news agency reported.

OTTAWA, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - An immigrant from China accused of stabbing, gutting and beheading a fellow passenger on a bus traveling across Canada in July was Monday declared fit to stand trial.

Vince Weiguang Li, 40, of Edmonton, Alberta faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Tim McLean, 22, aboard a Greyhound bus as it approached Winnipeg, Manitoba, in western Canada.

A Tanzanian held at Guantanamo Bay over the August 7, 1998 bombing of
the US embassy in Dar es Salaam was referred Friday to trial before a
special US military tribunal, the US defense department said

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Jury deliberations in O.J. Simpson's robbery and kidnapping trial extended into the evening here Friday, 13 years to the day after the American football legend was acquitted of murder.

O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbery and kidnapping here Friday, 13
years to the day after the American football legend was acquitted of
brutally murdering his ex-wife and her friend.

A Kenyan court fined a Swiss tourist 10,000 shillings (137 dollars) for calling two policemen 'black monkeys

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Witnesses lied and police rushed to judgement in their zeal to arrest O.J. Simpson on robbery and kidnapping charges, the American football legend's defense lawyers told jurors Thursday.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Jurors retired to consider their verdict in O.J. Simpson's robbery and kidnapping trial here Friday, 13 years to the day after the American football legend was acquitted of murder.

PARIS, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Nine suspects went on trial in Paris Thursday, accused of setting up a militant Islamic network that plotted to carry out bomb attacks in Paris.

The Algerian-born leader of the group, Safe Bourada, has already served a 10-year sentence for a wave of bombings on the Paris metro in 1995 claimed by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA).

WARSAW, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Poland's last communist-era dictator, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, 85, Thursday pleaded not guilty to communist crimes for having imposed the 1981 martial law crackdown on the anti-communist Solidarity union.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Jury selection for the murder retrial of Phil Spector got underway here Thursday, five years after the legendary music producer allegedly shot dead a blonde actress in his Los Angeles mansion.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Five years after a blonde actress was found shot dead in his Los Angeles mansion, legendary music producer Phil Spector's murder retrial begins Thursday with the start of jury selection.

ABIDJAN, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - The leading defendant in a key toxic waste trial Wednesday said he was misled by an affiliate of the Dutch multinational that brought the poisonous liquid to Ivory Coast in 2006.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - Lawyers defending O.J. Simpson in his armed robbery and kidnapping trial rested their case on Wednesday without putting the American football star on the witness stand.

ABIDJAN, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - The trial opened in Ivory Coast on Monday of 12 people charged with involvement in a 2006 toxic waste scandal which killed 17 Ivorians and poisoned thousands.

Nine of the 12 were in court to face a raft of charges including poisoning, complicity to poison and breaking environmental and public safety laws.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - RealNetworks on Tuesday released software that lets people copy films on DVDs, sparking a heated legal battle with Hollywood film studios fearful of rampant piracy.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - Microsoft and Washington state's top prosecutor have filed a lawsuit to stop 'scareware purveyors' that trick people with pop-up messages claiming computers need critical repairs.

PARIS, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - A French court Monday found President Nicolas Sarkozy's son Jean not guilty of fleeing the scene of a 2005 scooter crash and ordered the plaintiff to pay him several thousand euros in damages.

ABIDJAN, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - The trial opened in Ivory Coast on Monday of 12 people charged with involvement in a 2006 toxic waste scandal which killed 17 Ivorians and poisoned thousands.

Nine of the 12 were in court to face a raft of charges including poisoning, complicity to poison and breaking environmental and public safety laws.

BERLIN, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - A Catholic priest in Germany went on trial on Monday charged with a total of 101 crimes including blackmail, fraud, breach of trust, coercion and assault.

Forty-six of the charges including causing bodily harm and extortion facing the 39-year-old, who has not been named, relate to a relationship to a woman whom he met through his priestly duties in 2003.

CAIRO, Sept 28, 2008 (AFP) - An appeals court on Sunday ordered outspoken Egyptian editor Ibrahim Eissa to be jailed for two months for writing rumours about President Hosni Mubarak's health, a judicial source said.

'The appeals court ordered him jailed for two months,' the source said, asking not to be named. Eissa was not in court for the verdict.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - Jurors at O.J. Simpson's robbery and kidnapping trial on Friday were played recordings of gleeful Las Vegas police celebrating the disgraced sport's star imminent arrest last year.

WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - A US appeals court ruled Thursday that US computer software giant Microsoft does not have to pay French-US Telecommunication firm Alcatel-Lucent 1.5 billion dollars in a patent infringement case.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - A victim of an alleged armed robbery led by O.J. Simpson testified that he did not want to press charges, in a dramatic twist to the sports star's trial here Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - The son of Liberian former president Charles Taylor went on trial Wednesday in a Miami federal court on charges he was involved in summary executions and torture in the west African nation, court officials said.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - O.J. Simpson asked friends to bring guns to a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room, a witness told the sports star's armed robbery trial here Wednesday.