Chinese authorities have charged prominent rights activist Liu Xiaobo with "inciting subversion of state power" according to a Wednesday report by the state-run Xinhua news agency. Liu, who spent two years in prison following the Tiananmen Square uprising, has long challenged China's one-party rule, and co-authored Charter 08 , a petition calling for political reforms [...]

Richmond Medical Center for Women, et al. v. Herring, et al., US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, June 24, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on 'partial birth' abortion.

Former Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku was arrested in Bulgaria Tuesday at the Macedonian border on Serbian war crimes charges. Ceku is specifically charged by the Serbian Nis District Court with genocide in relation to the murder of 669 Serbs and 18 others during the Kosovo war . Serbian Minister of Justice Snezana Malovic has [...]

The Council of Europe (COE) on Tuesday urged substantial reforms to correct systemic problems in the Russian legal system, including the prevalence of political prosecutions and a lack of judicial independence. A report presented by COE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights member Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger addressed politically-motivated legal abuses in the dominant European legal [...]

A co-prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down in September for personal and family reasons. Canadian Robert Petit , charged with trying those responsible for atrocities committed during the rule of the Khmer Rouge , called his work at the court the "greatest [...]

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei granted a request Wednesday to allow opposition candidates five additional days to submit complaints about the contested presidential election in Iran. The Guardian Council for the Constitution made the request to allow complaints after recently rejecting protesters' requests for a re-election. Although Khamenei will hear the candidates' grievances, he told legislators [...]

Several former detainees held at the US detention facility at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have alleged abuse while in custody, the BBC reported Wednesday. Interviews conducted over a two-month period with 25 people detained on suspicion of belonging to al Qaeda or the Taliban revealed allegations that prisoners were subjected to physical abuse, death [...]

The War Crimes Council of the Belgrade District Court convicted a Croatian Serb of war crimes Tuesday for his involvement in the death of 200 Croatian POWs in 1991, sentencing him to 20 years in prison. Damir Sireta was originally charged with violating Articles 22 and 144 of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Criminal Code [...]

An Indian court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for 22 Pakistanis suspected of involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks , including a founding member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) , the Pakistani militant group suspected of carrying out the violence. Special Sessions Court judge M. L. Tahaliyani granted special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam's request to issue warrants for [...]

Prison rape continues to be a widespread problem in the US, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) . Among other suggestions, the report calls for officials to identify those prisoners who are vulnerable and to protect them, to develop reporting and investigatory procedures for sexual abuse that [...]