Chen Shui-bian entered the Taipei District Court building as police barred dozens of supporters and opponents from approaching him. But CTI Cable News reported that an elderly man managed to kick the former president before being taken away by two policemen.

Although Chen left the presidency in May, many Taiwan still revile him for alleged corruption and pro-independence policies.

Chen's Democratic Progressive Party lost the presidential election to the Nationalist Party's Ma Ying-jeou.

The libel suit was filed by retired Nationalist Admiral Lei Hsueh-ming, who is demanding $66 million in compensation.

Chen told reporters in 2005 that Lei and several other officials together took $20 million in bribes in a US$2.7 billion deal to buy six French-made frigates.

The deal turned into a scandal in 1993 following the death of a Taiwanese navy captain who was widely believed to have been killed because he was about to blow the whistle on colleagues who allegedly took kickbacks.

Canada transferred US Army deserter Robin Long back to US custody Tuesday following a decision by the Federal Court of Canada denying his asylum request. Long is the first of an estimated 200 US military personnel avoiding deployment in Canada to be returned to the US. Last week the court allowed another soldier, Joshua Key, to remain in the country while he appeals an initial denial of refugee status. In that case, the court named a number of key factors in determining whether or not the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) should grant an applicant asylum, including the reasons for the objection to deployment, the likely legal consequences of resisting deployment, and the availability of remedies other than Canadian refugee status. Quoting Article 171 of the UN Refugee Agency Handbook regarding the justification for a soldier to be granted asylum in another country, the court wrote:

Not every conviction, genuine thought it may be, will constitute a sufficient reason for claiming refugee status after desertion or draft-evasion. It is not enough for a person to be in disagreement with his government regarding the political justification for a particular military action. Where, however, the type of military action, with which an individual does not wish to be associated, is condemned by the international community as contrary to basic rules of human conduct, punishment for desertion or draft-evasion could, in the light of all other requirements of the definition, in itself be regarded as persecution.

In Long's case, the court said he had not adequately substantiated his risk of persecution in the US were he to be denied asylum, and under Canadian law, being granted the status is the only way he could remain in the country.

Earlier this month, Canada's House of Commons voted in a non-binding resolution to grant US military deserters asylum. In November 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the appeals of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, two US military deserters who applied for asylum before the IRB. The Board had concluded that the two men would receive a fair trial if they were returned to the US and that they would not face persecution or cruel and unusual punishment.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters he informed the U.N. Security Council, which asked the court in 2005 to investigate the Darfur crisis, of his progress before requesting a court warrant on Monday to arrest President Omar al-Bashir.

"This was my last week to do it, so I did it when I had my evidence ready," said Moreno-Ocampo, noting that the court was about to take a summer recess.

He added that his responsibility is to investigate cases and he "cannot be considering political factors."

The world's first permanent war crimes tribunal is based on a treaty adopted on July 17, 1998 and since ratified by 107 nations.

At hastily convened hearings last month, Mexico argued that the United States is defying a 2004 International Court of Justice order to review the cases of 51 Mexicans sentenced to death by state courts.

That order was based on the Hague-based court's finding that the condemned prisoners had been denied the right to help from their consulate following their arrest.

Wednesday's ruling comes less than three weeks before the first of the death row inmates, Jose Medellin, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection in Texas for taking part in the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago.

At last month's hearings, Mexico's chief advocate Juan Manuel Gomez-Robledo told the court the cases had not been systematically reviewed, and the U.S. was "in breach of its international obligations."

John B. Bellinger III, the U.S. legal adviser, said federal government had gone to "extraordinary lengths" to carry out the World Court's directive and to intercede with the state courts.

After the World Court's ruling, President George W. Bush issued a directive to the state courts to abide by the decision and also asked Texas specifically to review Medellin's case ahead of his planned Aug. 5 execution.

The Europa Press news agency said the prosecutors office at the court announced it was backing a case petition brought last month by Brussels-based rights organization Equipo Nizkor on behalf of victims' relatives.

The suspects are John Demjanjuk — an 88-year-old retired auto worker in Ohio — Anton Tittjung, Josias Kumpf and Johann Leprich.

Equipo Nizkor has said the U.S. has been trying for years to deport all four for lying about their Nazi pasts on their immigration papers, but that no country had been willing to take them.

The prosecutors' petition is a nonbinding recommendation. The court's judges will now decide whether to accept the case for study and consider filing charges. A decision could take months.

The filing marked the first time prosecutors at the world's first permanent, global war crimes court have issued charges against a sitting head of state.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir to prevent more deaths. Some 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in Darfur and are still under attack from government-backed janjaweed militia.

"Genocide is a crime of intention — we don't need to wait until these 2.5 million die," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Moreno-Ocampo was undeterred by concern that his indictment against al-Bashir might lead to vengeance against Darfur refugees and the closing of Sudan's doors to relief agencies and possibly peacekeeping troops.

McLaren apologized last December after Ferrari data and documents were found at its chief designer's home, resulting in a $100 million fine for McLaren and disqualification from the 2007 constructors championship.

McLaren said Friday that both sides had agred to bring the dispute to a final conclusion. The exact terms of the deal were not released, but Ferrari said it would donate the payment from McLaren to charity.

The Italian team said it would continue to pursue its case against former Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney. Stepney was head of performance development at Ferrari in July 2007 when the scandal broke after a 780-page technical dossier on Ferrari cars was found at the home of McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan.

Stepney and Coughlan were later fired by their teams.