The US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Tuesday selected US district judge Carl Barbier to hear more than 300 lawsuits filed against British Petroleum (BP) in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The panel ordered more than 77 actions and 200 additional potentially related actions to be transferred [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Tuesday called for the Taliban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan to be tried for war crimes for targeting civilians. The statement was released following the 2010 Mid-Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) . The report found that in the [...]
The South Korean National Police Agency (SKNPA) raided the Google South Korean headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday morning in connection with accusations that the company has been illegally acquiring user data. Representatives from the SKNPA’s Cyber Terror Response Center said that officials suspect Google of collecting personal data from wireless networks using its fleet of [...]
The opposition Scottish Labour Party called Tuesday for the publication of all medical evidence related to the release of convicted Pan Am Flight 103 bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi . The demand comes one year after al Megrahi was released from prison on compassionate grounds because doctors predicted he only had three months to [...]
The military trial of Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr began Tuesday with jury selection, despite international criticism of the proceedings. Khadr pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and terrorism Monday for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed one US soldier and injured another when he was 15. Potential jury members, all US military [...]
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Monday apologized to South Korea for Japan’s 20th-century colonization of the Korean peninsula. The statement was timed to coincide with the anniversaries of the 1910 annexation of the peninsula and the 1945 South Korean independence, which both occurred during August. In his statement, Kan emphasized the strength of the [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on governments to work to improve the human rights conditions of the world’s indigenous peoples. The statement, made on the International Day of World’s Indigenous People , urged world governments to come into compliance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples , which was adopted [...]
Sudanese Guantanamo Bay detainee Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi on Monday reached a plea agreement with the US government setting out the maximum sentence he can receive at his military tribunal . The details of the plea agreement will remain sealed until he is released from prison . According to al Qosi’s lawyers, the government [...]
The Bangladeshi Ministry of Education on Monday banned the use of corporal punishment in all schools across the country. Following a circular order issued by Education Secretary Ataur Rahman, calling the form of punishment “misconduct,” teachers found guilty of beating children will now face disciplinary action . The directive follows interim orders from the Bangladeshi [...]
US military judge Army Colonel Patrick Parrish on Monday ruled that confessions by Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr are admissible evidence in his US military commission trial. Khadr’s US military lawyer, Lt.-Colonel Jon Jackson, claimed that his statements were illegally obtained through threats of rape and death by interrogators. Prosecutors argued that they did [...]
