Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday ruled that in order to be validly held as an "enemy combatants," Guantanamo Bay detainees must have directly supported hostilities against the US or its allies. Leon made the ruling as a preliminary step in considering habeas corpus petitions filed [...]

Officials from Nigeria and from US pharmaceutical company Pfizer said Monday that they hope to reach a settlement agreement by the end of next month over allegedly illegal clinical trials conducted in Nigeria by the drug company in 1996. The national government and the state of Kano filed separate lawsuits in 2007 accusing Pfizer of [...]

Mexican Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibanez, head of Mexico's Assistant Prosecutors Office Specializing in Organized Crime (SIEDO) , said Monday a branch of a Mexican drug cartel had infiltrated her office. Following SIEDO's 'Operation Cleaning,' Miguel Colorado Gonzales, Fernado Rivera Hernadez, Jorge Alberto Zavala, Antonio Mejia Robles, and at least one other federal investigator [...]

Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday in his annual report to UN member states that he wants North Korea to return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty after a five-year absence, during which it tested a nuclear device. His statement comes less than two weeks after North Korea allowed IAEA [...]

The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled on Monday that current state laws regarding sex offenders are unconstitutional as applied to homeless people. The ruling was in response to the appeal of William James Santos, a homeless sex offender indicted for failing to register a new address as required by the Official Code of Georgia section [...]

UK Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw Monday called for a 'rebalancing of criminal justice priorities' amidst outrage expressed at newly released Ministry of Justice figures showing a sharp rise in the number of children born to female inmates. The Independent reported that according to official figures, 49 babies were born [...]

A pending California ballot initiative to eliminate same-sex marriage in the state has generated more than $60 million in contributions to committees representing both sides as of Saturday, a figure believed to be a US record. Proposition 8 , which would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to heterosexual couples, requires a simple majority [...]

Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic and Albanian state prosecutor Ina Rama met Monday to discuss allegations of organ trafficking in Kosovo. Former Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Carla Del Ponte alleged last spring in a new book on her time at the tribunal that about 300 Serbian and [...]

A Myanmar court sentenced six leading opposition activists to prison terms Friday in connection with their involvement in pro-democracy demonstrations during the abortive 2007 Saffron Revolution . All six are members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and each was sentenced to between two and 13 years, according to Nyan Win, a spokesman for [...]

Santos v. The State, Supreme Court of Georgia, October 27, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.