More than 100 Afghanistan journalists gathered in front of parliament on Wednesday to protest a Tuesday police raid on Afghanistan's largest TV network and call for the resignation of Afghan Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabit. Sabit ordered the raid on Tolo to bring in a Tolo journalist who reported that Sabit wanted to execute several [...]
A Pakistani citizen who says he has been detained in a secret facility for 18 months in connection with the CIA's extraordinary rendition program will challenge his detention in the Pakistani Supreme Court, Amnesty International (AI) said in a press release late Tuesday. Khalid Rashid was arrested in South Africa on illegal immigration charges in [...]
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini announced Tuesday that he will propose strengthening Eurojust , the European Commission's judicial cooperation unit, to facilitate communication between prosecutors in member states where criminal activities cross borders. Frattini also suggested creating a "European prosecutor" position with the power to initiate cross-border investigations. One diplomat told EUobserver that a European [...]
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 . In Gonzales v. Carhart , the Court held that groups challenging the ban on "partial-birth" abortions "have not demonstrated that the Act, as a facial matter, is void for vagueness, or that it imposes an undue burden on [...]
The Iraqi National Assembly will meet next week to consider a draft oil law regulating the development and distribution of Iraqi oil and giving the national government control over oil revenues, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Wednesday. The Iraqi cabinet approved the controversial law in February. Negotiations concerning the bill have been a source [...]
Opposition leader and former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed has been exiled from Bangladesh by President Iajuddin Ahmed's emergency government, according to a Bangladeshi Ministry of Home Affairs statement confirmed to the AFP by military officials on Wednesday. Bangladeshi authorities have alerted airlines operating flights to Bangladesh and immigration departments in ports of entry [...]
Protests delayed a Wednesday Ukrainian Constitutional Court hearing to determine the legality of the April 2 decree by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko that ordered parliament dissolved and new elections held. Riot police were called in to control the nearly 4,000 protesters who appeared outside the courthouse to show support for the president, and to allow [...]
The Somali transitional government dismissed former parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden and 29 other parliamentary members on Tuesday in what is purported to be an attempt to consolidate the government's power over the legislature. Aden had been replaced as speaker in January by someone more closely tied to the new government, in a move [...]
A gay rights bill that would allow same-sex couples in Oregon to enter into contractual relationships affording them the benefits available to married couples passed in the Oregon House of Representatives Tuesday. A second piece of legislation protecting individuals against discrimination based on sexual orientation also passed in the state House. That bill would ban [...]
A delegation of European Parliament members told two subcommittees of the US House of Representatives Tuesday that the use of extraordinary renditions by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is illegal. At the hearing conducted by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight , EP rendition investigator Carlo Fava said [...]
