The Greek Minister of Justice Tuesday quickly condemned as legally "non-existent" the first same-sex marriages performed in the country by the mayor of a small Greek island. Sotiris Hatzigakis said in a statement that Tilos Mayor Anastassios Alferis had overstepped his authority. The ceremonies united two gay and lesbian couples despite preliminary warnings from top [...]
A Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association (SBCA) committee Tuesday said the proposed constitutional amendment package is just an attempt by the Pakistan People's Party to delay addressing the reinstatement of ousted judges. The committee called for the immediate implementation of a Supreme Court decision invalidating Musharraf's November 3, 2007 declaration of emergency law and the [...]
Sahr MuhammedAlly : "Mohammed Jawad, who has been in Guantánamo for five years since he was 16 or 17 years old, was subjected to the "frequent flyer program" in May 2004. According to defense lawyer Air Force Major Dave Frakt, based on a review of DIMS (Detainee Information Management Systems – a daily log kept [...]
Top Sudanese officials have been intimately involved in the planning, execution, and cover-up of atrocities committed against the civilian population of the country's Darfur region, according to a report to be delivered to the UN Security Council Thursday by International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo . The report accuses the Government of Sudan [...]
A Camp Pendleton military judge Tuesday dismissed one count of obstruction of justice against US Marine Corps 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson , an intelligence officer charged in connection with the November 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha . The obstruction charge was based on allegations that Grayson ordered a subordinate to delete photographic [...]
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Tuesday called for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to resign and be tried for treason, labeling Musharraf a traitor disloyal to Pakistan. Now head of the PML-N party in the country's ruling coalition government, Sharif said that Musharraf should be punished for the "damage" that he has done to Pakistan [...]
A proposed UK anti-terror bill that would allow authorities to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days has been amended to only apply in cases of "grave and exceptional" terrorist threats, UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Tuesday. Current British law authorizes detention without charge for 28 days , but bill proponents [...]
The recent dismissal of the US military judge presiding over the military commission trial of Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr was not politically motivated, chief Guantanamo judge Marine Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann said Monday. Kohlman said that Col. Peter Brownback was removed because the Army did not renew his recall orders . Khadr's defense lawyers [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement Tuesday asserting that Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank violate international law. The statement was delivered by Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Max Gaylard at the opening of the UN International Meeting on the Question of Palestine in Malta. In his [...]
The Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor released a report Tuesday emphasizing the essential nature of the rule of law in eliminating poverty. The report's findings indicated that a vast majority of the world's poor live outside the protections of the law. Many are not registered with any state legal entity, making their [...]
