Thousands of Pakistanis rallied outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan Saturday in support of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry , who returned to the court building for the first time since being suspended by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf . Saturday's crowd of about 5,000, including many lawyers, chanted "Go Musharraf, go" among other slogans. In [...]
Ukrainian political rivals President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych agreed Sunday to hold elections on September 30 in a move intended to end an escalating constitutional crisis in the country. Repeating a call made earlier this year, Yushchenko said the constitutional confrontation which almost led to violence earlier this week as both men [...]
The Mexican government joined in opposition to a Mexico City abortion law legalizing abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy on Friday, appointing Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora to help argue before the Supreme Court of Mexico that the law is unconstitutional. Mora joins Jose Luis Soberanes , Mexico's top human rights official, who [...]
An Ontario Court of Appeal panel ruled Friday that officials making determinations under the Canadian province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act had to weigh the public interest in the release of information sought and that simply invoking statutory exemptions on release based on law enforcement or solicitor-client privilege unjustifiably limited the right [...]
An investigator for the UN Human Rights Council said Friday that the US has committed human rights violations in its interrogations of terror suspects and by putting questionable restrictions on immigration. In preliminary report from what will be a larger document due to the Council later this year, UN special rapporteur on human rights and [...]
Delegates from 68 countries wrapped up a three-day meeting in Lima, Peru Friday intended as a follow-up to the February Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions , where participants signed a declaration to ban cluster bombs by 2008. Organizers said the Lima meeting was a success, attracting 28 new countries which did not attend the Oslo [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled Friday that there exists no constitutional right to access legal services in Canada. The holding overturned two lower court decisions that had declared British Columbia's seven percent tax on legal fees unconstitutional because it made hiring a lawyer prohibitively expensive for low-income people. The case was originally brought [...]
A federal prosecutor said Friday that former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby should receive 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for blocking the investigation into the Valerie Plame CIA leak case . In papers filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia Friday, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wrote: Particularly [...]
Toronto Mayor David Miller Friday condemned a Wednesday shooting at a Toronto Ontario high school that left a 15-year-old student dead and called for a complete ban on handguns to prevent similar incidents in the future. Despite an increased police presence in the city to combat gang activity, Miller admitted the Canadian metropolis has so [...]
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer Friday vetoed a constitutional amendment that would have changed the country's election procedures to allow the president to be elected by direct vote rather than selected by parliamentarians. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) pushed through the amendment after opposition lawmakers, fearing that sole presidential candidate Abdullah Gul would [...]
