A group of renowned Chinese lawyers and academics Tuesday released an open letter to the Chinese government , calling for the end of "re-education" labor camps. The scholars said the camps, originally designed in 1957 to deal with political dissidents, violate the Chinese constitution because sentences are imposed by police or political leaders rather than [...]
Newly declassified court documents show that a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) at Guantanamo Bay ignored evidence clearing German-born Turkish citizen Murat Kurnaz of terrorist connections, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. Kurnaz sued the Department of Defense in December 2006 to compel the release of the classified documents. The Post reported Wednesday that a 2002 [...]
Former Pakistani prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto are in negotiations to draw up a list of formal demands they say must be met by the government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf before they will definitively agree to participate in January's parliamentary elections, but they remain divided on the issue of reinstalling ousted superior [...]
Disgraced Democratic Party fundraiser Norman Hsu was indicted Tuesday on 15 additional counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) in connection with a massive alleged Ponzi scheme . Hsu also allegedly made illegal campaign contributions in other peoples' names in violation of the FECA. According to the [...]
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Wednesday apologized to the thousands of Japanese women and children abandoned during Japan's retreat from China at the close of World War II, marking the first time that a Japanese leader has apologized for the country's failure to support the "war orphans" . The remarks came after the recent passage [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the consolidated cases of Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) and Al Odah v. United States (06-1196) on whether detainees at Guantanamo Bay should be allowed to challenge their detentions in federal court. The Court is considering whether the Military Commissions Act of 2006 "validly stripped federal court [...]
Danilo Reyes : "There have been dozens of attempted coups in the modern history of the Philippines, but only one has succeeded: the February 1986 overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos. His regime and its constitutional foundations were toppled because even though the country's institutions were structurally intact, they were not credible to the vast numbers of [...]
Investigators in Chad Tuesday completed a criminal probe into French charity Zoe's Ark for its involvement in an October attempt to airlift 103 alleged Darfur orphans from Chad to Europe, and transferred the case to Chadian prosecutors. According to a Chadian court official, prosecutors will now determine whether the case should proceed on misdemeanor charges [...]
The Pakistan Law and Justice Ministry Tuesday announced the formal forced retirement from the Pakistan Supreme Court and other high courts of 37 judges, including ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry , who was replaced immediately after President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 imposition of emergency rule. Acting Law Secretary Malik Hakim Khan cited the judges' [...]
The Iraqi legislature's failure to pass an oil law , rather than the security situation in the country, is preventing international oil corporations from investing in Iraq, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said Tuesday. Kimmitt explained that companies are looking for the law to establish a firm investment framework with clear regulations before moving [...]
