Germany filed a lawsuit against Italy in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Tuesday in a bid to block new claims for personal damages resulting from Nazi actions in World War II. Germany is arguing that an October decision by Italy's Court of Cassation which ordered Germany to pay 1 million euros (USD $1.3 million) [...]
The Iraqi parliament Tuesday approved an agreement that will permit 6,000 troops from the United Kingdom, Australia, Romania, and Estonia to remain in the country for a limited time after the current UN mandate authorizing the multi-national force in Iraq expires on December 31, 2008. The vote came after Sunni speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani offered his [...]
The Albanian Parliament on Monday adopted a law banning former members and affiliates of the nation's Communist-era secret police force from holding public office. The so-called lustration law will employ a 5-person commission to screen from political candidacy all associates of the Sigurimi secret service during Albania's Communist regime from November 1944 to December 1990. [...]
US federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald Tuesday asked the Illinois House of Representatives to limit its impeachment inquiry into Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and avoid looking into the criminal charges against him. Fitzgerald warned that an inquiry into the criminal charges could hamper the investigation. The impeachment committee, which has agreed to follow instructions from federal [...]
One of the West Bank's largest Israeli settlements is an "unauthorized outpost," according to a report released Monday by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem . The report examined Ofra , a settlement in eastern Jerusalem established in 1975, and drew from a 2005 Israeli government-commissioned study of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. That so-called [...]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) Monday upheld a law that passengers must be compensated if a flight is canceled without "extraordinary circumstances." The law , passed in 2004 by the Council of the European Union , established common rules regarding compensation and assistance to passengers for canceled flights. The original claim against Alitalia was [...]
Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland said Tuesday that the government will reform anti-terrorism legislation in accordance with the recommendations of a report into the case of Dr. Mohammad Haneef which concluded that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had no evidence to detain him. Haneef was arrested in July 2007 and held for 25 days without [...]
Dr. Abdullahi Darman : "Somalia has been a failed state since its military dictator was toppled in 1991. As a result it has been missing the ethics of one of the three fundamentals of a state – a functional government. Although, the paralyzed Somali Marine law specifically punished sea piracy with the minimum of 10 [...]
Human Rights First Monday filed an amicus curiae brief requesting a stay of military commission proceedings against five Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , the self-proclaimed architect of the 9/11 attacks , until President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January. The group filed the brief to stay the proceedings after Mohammed and the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Peter Erlinder of William Mitchell College of Law and a Lead Defense Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), says that if – as the ICTR recently ruled in the "Military I" trial – alleged "masterminds" Colonel Theoneste Bagosora and fellow top Rwandan military officers engaged in no conspiracy and [...]
