Georgia urges UN to hear 'ethnic cleansing' case

The UN's highest court on Friday declined to hear "ethnic cleansing" charges brought by Georgia against Russia, saying it had no jurisdiction in the case concerning South Ossetia and Abkhazia."The court, by 10 votes to six, finds that it has no jurisdiction to entertain the application," International Court of Justice president Hisashi Owada said in handing down judgment in The Hague.

Two Sudan rebel leaders who surrendered to a world court over a deadly attack on Darfur peacekeepers on Thursday urged other war crimes suspects to come forward and face justice.Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus came volontarily to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague Wednesday over the 2007 attack in war-torn Darfur which killed 12 African Union troops.Describing themselves as revolutionaries, both said they welcomed the chance to clear their names and urged others wanted by the court to follow suit.

Kenya's richest man, Uhuru Kenyatta has voluntarily resigned from his position as the country's finance minister following an International Criminal Court (ICC) ruling that he will stand trial for crimes against humanity. On Monday, the ICC ruled that Kenyatta, (worth an estimated $500 million) played a major role in inciting and financing local thugs to murder and rape Kenyans who supported the opposition party after the country's highly controversial 2007 presidential elections.

The U.N.'s highest court threw out Georgia's complaint accusing Russia and separatist militias of years of ethnic cleansing in two breakaway Georgian provinces.

MOSCOW — A Russian ballet star who most recently played the title role in “Ivan the Terrible” at the famed Bolshoi Theater has confessed that he organized the acid attack on the theater’s ballet chief, Moscow police said Wednesday. Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet, suffered severe burns to his eyes and face on Jan. 17 when a masked attacker threw a jar of sulfuric acid in his face as he returned home late at night. The 42-year-old former dancer is undergoing treatment in Germany.