Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia Abdul Hamid Mohamad indicated his support Wednesday for the creation of an independent body to govern the appointment and promotion of judges, reportedly telling a group of judges that it would help "regain the confidence of the public in the judiciary." In March, newly appointed Malaysian Law [...]

Police in China have detained 953 people, of which 403 have been formally arrested, in connection with protests against Chinese rule in Tibet last month, Chairman of the Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region Qiangba Puncog said Wednesday. Last Friday, a top Tibetan official was quoted as saying that Tibetan courts would prosecute more than [...]

Myanmar's 45-member Referendum Holding Commission has scheduled a planned national constitutional referendum for May 10, the military government announced Wednesday. Opposition groups like the National League for Democracy (NLD) have urged citizens to reject the proposed constitution put forth by the military government, labeling the referendum a "sham" to legalize military rule. AP reported last [...]

The US Department of Defense has assigned Navy Captain Prescott Prince to defend confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed before a US military commission, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday. In February, the US government said it would seek the death penalty for Mohammed and five other Guantanamo detainees accused of involvement in the Sept. [...]

A 2003 US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum demonstrates that the detention of Illinois resident and Qatari native Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri "lacks legal basis" as the detention was based on now-discredited legal opinions, a lawyer for al-Marri argued in a letter submitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth [...]

The Assembly of Kosovo Wednesday adopted the country's new draft constitution without a vote, which was signed earlier this week by top Kosovo officials. Last week, the European Union certified that the seceded Serbian province's constitution is in line with its international obligations, guaranteeing the individual and community rights of all its citizens. Kosovo's constitution [...]

A Peruvian court Tuesday convicted four former Peruvian military officers of kidnapping and murder for their roles in the 1992 La Cantuta massacre , which left one professor and nine students at Lima's La Cantuta University dead. The military general and three military death squad soldiers convicted each received prison sentences ranging from 15 to [...]

The judicial members of the House of Lords making up Britain's highest court on Wednesday denied a request by two mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq for a public inquiry into the legality of UK's decision to go to war in Iraq . The mothers had requested an inquiry into the decision to go to [...]

Human Rights Watch accused the CIA Tuesday of transferring terror suspects to Jordan following September 11, saying that the US sent them there for interrogations as part of the CIA's rendition program . HRW reported that at least 14 persons were sent to Jordan, saying that: From 2001 until at least 2004, Jordan's General Intelligence [...]

Pakistani Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan said Tuesday he was resigning as head of the lawyer's association and then appeared to back away from that statement after a crowd of lawyers and other persons in Lahore beat up former Pakistani Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi . Ahsan, who has led the [...]