Urging other party members to learn from his example, a retired property developer who criticized President Xi Jinping’s state media clampdown is to be “seriously punished” by the Communist Party officials in Beijing.   The party committee in Beijing’s Xicheng district said in a statement...

While accusing the opposition of violating the agreement intended to halt nearly five years of fighting, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described the cessation of hostilities in force since Saturday as a "glimmer of hope".   On the other hand allegations of breaching the fragile truce by...

Apple and the FBI’s confrontation has become the largest in recent years public debate about where to draw the line between privacy of personal information and national security. The point is not limited by a single phone hacking: since past September, authorities at least 12 times asked Apple to...

A jehadi leader accused of demolishing ancient mausoleums in Timbaktu is the first case that would come up for trial in the international criminal court’s first war crimes trial for destruction of cultural monuments this week.   Medieval shrines, tombs of Sufi saints and a mosque dating back...

Disturbed intermittently with reports of scattered airstrikes and bombings but with an overall the slowdown in fighting, Syria’s fragile ceasefire has entered its second day.   The cease fire in the 5 year civil war in Syria has been regarded as the most successful effort yet to reduce the...

The death of Justice Antonin Scalia is a blow to businesses that have had success recently in challenging class action cases at the U.S. Supreme Court was evidenced when Dow Chemical Co's agreement to pay $835 million to settle a price-fixing dispute.   Rather than risk its fate being...

Described by the United Nations as the best hope for peace in five years of civil war, a cessation of hostilities appeared to hold for its first day as guns mostly fell silent in Syria and Russian air raids stopped on Saturday.   Fighting should cease so aid can reach civilians and talks can...

Claiming the unlocking an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters would violate its free speech rights and override the will of Congress, Apple Inc struck back in court against a U.S. government demand which has been demanding the unlocking of the phone.    ...

Seeking to demonstrate its nuclear arms capacity at a time of rising strategic tensions with Russia and North Korea, the U.S. military test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile in a week on Thursday night.    Late at night the unarmed Minuteman III missile was launched...