Several provincial Egyptian courts ruled Tuesday that members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood must be allowed to register as candidates in the upcoming local council elections in April, even as Egyptian police continued arrests of group members. Egyptian police arrested at least 10 Brotherhood members on Wednesday, adding to the 54 members arrested last Tuesday [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said Tuesday that US officials have refused to grant him access to US prisons operating in Iraq when he travels to the country later in the year. Nowak told reporters in Geneva that US officials told him the facilities were outside his purview because of the ongoing military [...]

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Wednesday pleaded not guilty to charges of abuse of power for personal gain, conflict of interest violations, and dereliction of duty for personal gain in corruption proceedings before the Supreme Court of Thailand. The charges stem from a 2003 land purchase by his wife Pojamarn from the government-directed Financial [...]

The US House of Representatives Tuesday voted 229-182 to pass a resolution creating an independent ethics panel to investigate allegations of malfeasance against House lawmakers. The Office of Congressional Ethics will consist of six non-House members of "exceptional public standing." This represents the first time that the House has delegated the authority to investigate alleged [...]

Telecommunications companies who have assisted the government in its warrantless surveillance program would not be provided retroactive immunity from prosecution under the latest version of proposed surveillance legislation being considered by the US House of Representatives. The companies, however, would be allowed to present classified evidence in their defense without granting access to plaintiffs. Democratic [...]

A member of the National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia said Tuesday that the commission has launched an investigation into human rights abuses committed during the regime of former Indonesian President Haji Mohammad Suharto , telling AP that four separate teams will work until mid-May to gather evidence into killings, kidnappings and other abuses allegedly [...]

The UK House of Commons voted 346-206 Tuesday in favor of the EU reform treaty , properly known as the Treaty of Lisbon . MPs adopted the European Union (Amendment) Bill , which will incorporate the Treaty of Lisbon into UK law, after the bill's third reading . The bill now goes to the House [...]

Democrats in the US House of Representatives Tuesday failed to secure enough votes to override President George W. Bush's veto of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008 , which would have prohibited the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from using waterboarding and other interrogation techniques not explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. Even with [...]

State of Kansas ex rel Paul J. Morrison, Attorney General of the State of Kansas v. The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of the State of Kansas, Kansas Supreme Court, March 11, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, March 11, 2008 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.