The US Senate Tuesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 , a military spending bill that includes a provision exemptimg Iraq from US lawsuits dating back to the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein . Sponsored by Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO) , the bill passed the Senate 91-3 . The [...]
The office of Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Wednesday that Vukcevic has received death threats for his involvement in pursuing war crimes fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for their roles in the 1990 Balkan Wars. Four war crimes suspects are still at large, including former Bosnian [...]
Pojamarn Shinawatra, wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , told the Thailand Supreme Court Tuesday that Thaksin will return to Thailand in May to battle corruption charges laid against him after he was ousted in a military coup in September 2006. Pojamarn herself faces charges of conflict of interest and malfeasance for a [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Robert Amsterdam, international defense counsel for Russian billionaire and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, imprisoned in Siberia for tax fraud after a controversial trial and now facing money laundering charges, says it is increasingly clear that the case against his client is political in nature… In the Kremlin's zeal to keep [...]
Israel and the United States plan to boycott a special session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva Wednesday called to discuss possible human rights violations in Gaza in the wake of a blockade imposed by Israel on the area last Friday. Israel closed crossings into Gaza after more than 45 rockets attacks [...]
The City Council of Farmers Branch , a Dallas, Texas suburb, on Tuesday approved a measure that would require all adults to apply for a city license before they can lease a house or apartment. The application obliges rental applicants to disclose whether they are a US citizen or a legal alien in the US, [...]
Jane Roe v. Lance Crawford, Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, January 22, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday unanimously upheld a 2006 federal court ruling that the state of Missouri must provide inmates with transportation to a medical facility for a non-therapeutic abortion. The Eighth Circuit rejected the trial court's conclusion that a non-therapeutic abortion constitutes a "serious medical need," and therefore [...]
An Afghan journalism student charged with blasphemy was sentenced to death Tuesday, following a recommendation from the Afghan Council of Mullahs. A three-judge panel found that papers printed from the Internet by 23-year-old Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, allegedly including discussion of women's role in society, insulted Islam and invoked Article 130 of the Afghanistan Constitution , [...]
The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Tuesday released a report criticizing the United Kingdom's voting system for its vulnerability to fraud. A February 2007 fact-finding trip conducted by a PACE committee found that fraud risks are "mainly the result of the, rather arcane, system of voter registration without personal identifiers." UK voting registers currently [...]
