JURIST Contributing Editor Nancy Rapoport of the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada Las Vegas, says that the apparent willingness of US Department of Justice officials – all the way up to and including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales – to authorize harsh interrogation techniques in support of government policy raises the [...]

Martial law will remain in some regions of Thailand indefinitely, General Winai Phattiyakul said Monday, citing unspecified security concerns in border provinces. Winai said that martial law will be lifted in some provinces, but gave no specifics on when that might occur. Martial law was imposed nationwide after the Thai military seized power from civilian [...]

Blackwater USA private security guards deliberately shot Iraqi civilians during a September shooting incident , a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Sunday after the Iraqi government concluded an investigation into the shooting. The investigation found no evidence that the Blackwater guards had been attacked or provoked, and raised the death toll [...]

The Iraqi government said Sunday it would sue the former head of the country's Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) , Judge Radhi al-Radhi, for smuggling official documents, defaming the prime minister and corruption. In testimony Thursday before the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform , al-Radhi accused Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government [...]

Russian police Saturday briefly detained five foreign activists in Nizhny Novgorod on charges of violating the terms of their Russian travel visas. The activists were detained for approximately four and a half hours, and were ordered to pay a $120 fine. The five, including Neil Hicks, a British citizen and a director of the New [...]

The Court of Appeal in Sudan has rejected a request for the release of 25 uncharged members of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), alleged to have plotted the overthrow of the government. Sudan's Criminal Procedure Act of 1983 allows for the detention of suspects under investigation for up to two weeks before they must [...]

Twenty-three family members and former associates of late Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet were ordered released on bail Saturday by a three-member panel of an appeals court in Chile. The appeals court upheld a Friday lower court ruling granting the bail. A Chilean judge indicted the individuals – including Pinochet's widow and five children – [...]

Marilou Rickert v. State of Washington, Public Disclosure Commission, and Susan Brady, et al., Supreme Court of the State of Washington, October 4, 2007 . Read the court's opinion and a dissent . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Giovanni Di Stefano : "The 'delay' on the execution of Al majid et al is de facto a stay. As I had stated in my parere pro veritate, the Iraqi Government are precluded by religious law to execute anyone during Ramadan. Iraqi law supposedly requires executions to take place 'within 30 days from final sentence' [...]

Myanmar military leaders increased pressure on opponents Sunday, detaining at least 135 Buddhist monks in connection with weapons allegedly seized from monasteries. The ruling junta claims raids have uncovered guns, knives and ammunition and insists they will punish all violators of the law. The crackdown comes on the heels of a sharp reduction in security [...]