Lawyers and activists from 38 Asian Pacific countries meeting Monday at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Environmental Justice and Enforcement in Bangkok, Thailand, criticized lax enforcement of environmental laws throughout Asia, saying that governments have ignored enforcement in favor of promoting economic development. Attending environmental lawyers also blamed corruption and ignorance for hampering anti-pollution efforts, [...]
Two Russian offices of the British Council in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg resumed operations Monday, defying a shutdown order from the Russian government. Russian authorities say that the Council has violated Russian tax laws; the Council, a non-departmental public body that promotes UK culture abroad, has insisted that it is an arm of the British [...]
A judge on Iraq's federal court of appeal was assassinated by gunmen Monday morning on his way to work in the western Baghdad district of Mansour. Amir Jawdat al-Naeib was also a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, the body which administers judicial affairs in Iraq. AP has more. Voices of Iraq has local coverage. [...]
Admiral Mike Mullen , the Chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff , said in an interview with reporters Sunday that the US facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba should be closed. Mullen, who was confirmed by the Senate as Chairman in August, said Guantanamo has damaged the international reputation of the United States, [...]
Chief of the South African Police Services Jackie Selebi resigned as president of INTERPOL on Sunday, in the wake of news that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of South Africa would be filing charges of corruption against him. In his brief letter of resignation , Selebi wrote that he did not want the charges against [...]
Croatian lawmaker Branimir Glavas , charged with committing war crimes against Serbs during the 1991 Serbo-Croatian war , was stripped of his parliamentary immunity on Saturday so that lawyers could proceed with his prosecution. Glavas, formerly a prominent member of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union , was released from jail on Friday when the Zagreb [...]
Ousted Pakistani Supreme Court Justice Rana Bhagwandas was placed under house arrest Saturday for urging members of the Karachi Bar Association to boycott judges who had taken oaths of office under President Pervez Musharraf's now-abrogated Provisional Constitutional Order following his November 3 declaration of emergency rule . It was the second time Bhagwandas had been [...]
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was formally charged with extortion in Dhaka on Sunday. Hasina and co-defendant Sheikh Selim, a former Minister of Government, are accused of extorting around $1.16 million from two businessmen while in office. Reuters cited court officials as saying that her trial will begin January 17, and that a verdict [...]
US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said in an article published in the New Yorker Sunday that waterboarding , the controversial interrogation technique simulating drowning allegedly used against detainees by the CIA, was torture as far as he was concerned. The question of whether waterboarding is in fact illegal torture dogged now-Attorney General Michael [...]
Robert M. Nelson et al. v. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, January 11, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
