Australian advocacy group International Criminal Court Action (ICCACTION) sent a brief to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Friday requesting charges be laid against former Australian Prime Minister John Howard for war crimes in connection with his deployment of Australian troops to support the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. The brief alleges Howard committed crimes in [...]
A federal judge in California subpoenaed a Washington Times reporter Saturday, ordering him to reveal the government sources he used for a 2006 story about a Chinese spy ring. Defense and national security reporter William Gertz cited unnamed US government sources in a May 2006 story , which reported that Justice Department officials had approved [...]
Aleksandra (Sasha) Williams, Pitt Law '10, files from Kiev: The last five years have dramatically changed the appearance of Kiev, the fabled "Cradle of the Slavs". Always admired for its green parks and gardens, its sensible city structure, and its historical sites preservation efforts, the city has now joined the ranks of randomly designed post-Soviet [...]
Several Russian gay rights activists were arrested by police in Moscow Sunday for holding events commemorating the 1993 law that put an end to government prosecution for homosexual activity in Russia. For the third consecutive year, Moscow Pride held events around the city to elude officials attempting to enforce a local ban on gay pride [...]
US federal authorities are prosecuting significantly more illegal immigrants than in past years, at least partly because of a 2005 zero-tolerance initiative allowing agents to charge almost all illegal immigrants with minor crimes, according to a report released May 22 by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse . Monthly immigration prosecutions based on February 2008 [...]
The US Supreme Court handed down three decisions Monday, including United States v. Santos , where the Court held 7-2 that the term "proceeds" in a federal money laundering statute means "profits" and not "receipts." Santos had successfully collaterally attacked his conviction under the statute because the government did not prove that he used profits [...]
The US has held terror detainees on roving prison ships in an effort to hide them from media scrutiny and legal watchdogs, UK prison rights group Reprieve alleged Monday. According to Reprieve, it is suspected that the USS Bataan, the USS Peleliu and at least 15 other ships have housed detainees, though it is not [...]
An Iranian court has sentenced a man to one year in prison after police arrested him last year for collecting signatures in a Tehran park in support of women's rights, his lawyer said Sunday. Amir Yaghoub-Ali , a twenty-two year-old student, was found guilty on May 25 of endangering national security and spreading propaganda. Yaghoub-Ali's [...]
Swiss voters Sunday rejected by roughly 64-36 percent a referendum initiative that would have allowed municipalities control over granting Swiss passports without the possibility of appeal for applicants. The Swiss Supreme Court found in 2003 that a similar policy was unconstitutional for being discriminatory, but the nationalistic Swiss People's Party had urged the referendum to [...]
Hakan Gecim : "The organization I am working for, Kaos GL, based in Ankara, Turkey, faced a demand for closure from Ankara's deputy governor, Selahattin Ekmenoglu, in 2005. The closure petition was dismissed by prosecutors. Homosexuality has never been a crime in Turkey, and some clubs, cinemas and LGBTT organizations in big cities openly cater [...]
