Judges at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) Wednesday denied the bail request of former Khmer Rouge minister for social affairs Ieng Thirith , finding that she could be criminally culpable for her actions and that she is still dangerous to society. The ECCC ordered Ieng Thirith into provisional detention in November [...]
A UK intelligence official said Tuesday that there are "very strong indications" that the Russian government was behind the murder of former KGB agent and British citizen Alexander Litvinenko . The official made the comments anonymously during a television interview with the BBC, and asserted that the type of poison used proves Russia's involvement in [...]
The US government is preventing the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from paying lawyers defending Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects on trial before US military commissions , ACLU director Anthony Romero said Tuesday. Lawyers for the group's John Adams Project are defending detainees included on the US Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control list of sanctioned [...]
A former British intelligence bureau chief told the House of Lords Tuesday that a proposed anti-terror bill allowing authorities to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days is impractical and unprincipled. Elizabeth Manningham-Buller , who resigned as the head of MI5 last year, said that the bill was unworkable and would not [...]
The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) expressed "great concern" Tuesday over Italy's decision to dissolve the office of High Commissioner against corruption , effective August 25, 2008. In a letter to High Commissioner Vincenzo Grimaldi, the president of GRECO, a coalition of European states dedicated to monitoring compliance with the Council of Europe's anti-corruption [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says the Iraqi government needs to secure independent counsel over and above whatever guidance it has received from US government advisers before entering into key oil contracts with major US oil companies… Much has been written recently of the oil contracts [...]
Anna Baggio : "The fact that Ontario's antiquated mining legislation was cited as part of problem at the heart of Ardoch Algonquins case is significant. It reinforces, for me, the need for a massive overhaul of Ontario's Mining Act including the "free entry system." It also reinforces for me the need to bring mining legislation [...]
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg Tuesday signed an agreement allowing the US to install ballistic missile radar systems in the Czech Republic, prompting an immediate Russian threat of a "military-technical" response if the deal is implemented. The two signatories worked out most of the details of [...]
The upper house of the Dutch parliament voted 50-15 Tuesday to approve the EU reform treaty , formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon . Last month, Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that he would press on with ratification, even after Irish voters rejected the treaty in a referendum earlier that month. The [...]
Gregg Cunningham : "Why does it matter that hecklers be denied a veto over offensive speech? Social injustice will always flourish where it is ignored and trivialized. Oppressors are most ruthless when their abuses can be concealed. It is, therefore, the responsibility of social reformers to drag these travesties out of the darkness and into [...]
