New information concerning charges that separatist Kosovo Liberation Army leaders were involved in trafficking organs taken from Serb prisoners during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo justifies a probe into the allegations, Human Rights Watch said Monday. HRW urged Kosovo and Albania to launch an investigation into the allegations, and said that it had sent letters [...]
A key member of a five-person panel convened last week by Pakistan's coalition government to draft a parliamentary resolution to reinstate judges ousted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has quit, according to local media reports Monday. Retired Justice Fakhruddin Ibrahim sent a letter to Pakistani Law Minister Farooq Naek announcing that he was quitting because [...]
Indonesian authorities have arrested an alleged member of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in connection with the 2005 Bali bombings that killed 20 people and injured over a hundred, a police spokesman told AFP Monday. Faiz Fauzan is accused of helping to plan a second suicide bombing on the island and is [...]
A Texas court Monday set the execution date for Mexican national and Texas prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin for August 5, after the US Supreme Court ruled in March that President George W. Bush did not have the authority to direct state courts to comply with a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) granting [...]
A scheduled May 10 referendum on a draft constitution proposed by Myanmar's ruling junta will proceed as planned despite a devastating weekend storm that left an estimated 4000 people dead and thousands more homeless, state media reported Monday. The New Light of Myanmar also reported Monday that the country's ruling junta had "expressed surprise" at [...]
The Malaysian High Court Monday accepted a challenge by Malay-Roman Catholic Herald newspaper to a government ban on using the word "Allah" as a synonym for "God," rejecting the government's argument that the lawsuit by the Kuala Lumpur-based weekly was without merit. The Malaysian government imposed the ban in January after saying last year that [...]
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Sunday abandoned a proposal to legally recognize same-sex civil union ceremonies after the Australian federal government threatened to veto Civil Partnerships Bill 2006 if it passed the ACT Legislative Assembly . ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell said that the self-governing territory will now move to legalize civil partnerships without ceremony [...]
One or more suspected pipe bombs exploded early Sunday morning outside the federal courthouse in San Diego, California. No warning was given of the blast but no one was hurt. The front entrance of the Edward J. Schwartz US Courthouse was damaged. No arrests have been made in connection with the explosion but an investigation [...]
Bolivians in the state of Santa Cruz participated in a regional referendum Sunday on greater autonomy from the Bolivian national government despite opposition from Bolivian President Evo Morales , who characterized the referendum as illegal and unconstitutional. The poll was backed by Santa Cruz leaders as a way for the state to protect its natural [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Abigail Salisbury says that the recent war crimes acquittal of former Kosovo prime minister and Kosovo Liberation Army leader Ramush Haradinaj before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia – a ruling now under prosecution appeal – may compound existing tensions in the Balkans and provide a platform for his [...]
