Pakistan's current president and military leader General Pervez Musharraf won an overwhelming victory in presidential elections Saturday, according to unofficial results. Musharraf collected 252 out of 257 votes in the National Assembly of Pakistan and so far has won the support of a majority of lawmakers in three of Pakistan's four provinces. Many opposition politicians [...]
US President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone Friday about their concerns over potential damage to US-Turkey relations if the US House of Representatives passes HR 106 , a resolution labeling the World War I-era killings by Turkish soldiers of over one million Armenians as genocide. While the [...]
US District Judge Benjamin Settle Friday temporarily blocked a second court-martial for US Army Iraq war objector 1st Lt. Ehren Watada that had been scheduled to begin October 9. Settle ruled that a second proceeding would include the harm that the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment was intended to prevent, and the civilian [...]
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday responded to growing concerns over the conduct of Blackwater security escorts working for the State Department in Iraq by directing that all Blackwater USA vehicles be fitted with security cameras and that all convoys have at least one federal agent present while escorting diplomats. The State Department also [...]
A federal judge Friday overturned his previous ruling dismissing 16 lawsuits challenging the indefinite detention of about 40 terror suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay , in the process avoiding new limitations on lawyers' access to their clients at the US military prison. US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina reinstated the petitions of habeas corpus after [...]
The UN special envoy to Myanmar noted what he characterized as continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uninformed elements at a meeting of the UN Security Council Friday as Myanmar officials continued the hunt for the ringleaders in recent anti-government protests. Ibrahim Gambari was reporting to the UN Security Council [...]
The Chinese Medical Association (CMA) agreed at a meeting of the World Medical Association in Copenhagen Friday to end the harvesting of organs from prisoners, except for transplant into close relatives. In a letter to the World Medical Association, the CMA promised to increase oversight of China's organ transplant practices and to clamp down on [...]
The top military prosecutor for the Guantanamo war crimes trials has resigned his post, according to a US Department of Defense (DOD) spokesman Friday. Air Force Col. Moe Davis requested a transfer from Guantanamo after complaining that an officer who served as legal advisor to the Convening Authority , who is responsible for running the [...]
National Reconciliation Ordinance, Pervez Musharraf, October 5, 2007 . Read the full text of the ordinance. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
US President George W. Bush Friday defended his administration's interrogation policy, saying that the "government does not torture people" and that it "stick to US law and our international obligations." Bush was responding to Congressional demands for two 2005 Department of Justice opinion letters that reportedly endorsed harsh interrogation tactics. Bush said: I have put [...]
