After initial expressions of concern and regret , several top Japanese politicians said over the weekend they would ignore a proposed US House of Representatives resolution calling for Japan to apologize to "comfort women" used by the Japanese army as sex slaves during World War II. Hidenao Nakagawa , secretary general of the ruling Liberal [...]
The Iraqi judge responsible for sentencing Saddam Hussein to death is not seeking political asylum in Great Britain, according to the Iraqi High Tribunal Sunday. Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman has been in London since December but reportedly confirmed to the tribunal that he does not intend to apply for asylum for himself or his family, [...]
South Carolina US senators Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint , both Republicans, have angrily criticized a Democrat-sponsored proposal to transfer current prisoners held at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the state's penal system or facilities in any other US state. Graham claimed the suggestion was a dangerous and emotionally fueled one which [...]
A Libyan court Sunday granted the defense team for six foreign medics accused of slandering police agents an additional two weeks to prepare for trial. Five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death in December for deliberately infecting 426 children with the HIV virus. The medics have maintained that they were tortured [...]
A revised version of a controversial bill granting amnesty to groups that allegedly committed war crimes was signed into law Saturday by Afghan President Hamid Karzai after being approved earlier in the day by the Afghan parliament, which includes many former militia leaders. The resolution bars the state from independently prosecuting individuals for war crimes [...]
Thousands of Italians rallied in Rome on Saturday in support of a bill that would give legal status to unmarried gay and heterosexual couples couples. The proposal, which has been harshly criticized by the Italian justice minister and the top Italian bishop , would give unmarried couples combined medical insurance, the right to visit their [...]
Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposed changes to the country's constitution Friday in an effort to reform its criminal justice system . Earlier this month, Amnesty International accused Mexico in a report of having a "gravely flawed" criminal justice system in which human rights abuses are perpetuated and criminals are rarely punished. The report cited evidence [...]
Hundreds of Pakistani lawyers boycotted courts Saturday to protest Friday's suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for unspecified misconduct. An estimated 200 lawyers burned images of President Pervez Musharraf in Karachi. Amir Rana, a nephew of Chaudhry, told AP that the chief justice refused a request by Musharraf to resign and that Chaudhry's "movement [...]
US District Judge Richard G. Stearns ordered US immigration officials on Friday to provide detainees from a New Bedford, Massachusetts sweatshop access to lawyers and not to move them out of state. Stearns also told the state Department of Social Services and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to find a solution to the [...]
Ecuador's Constitutional Tribunal has warned President Rafael Correa that he would be acting illegally if he ignores a potential unfavorable ruling by the Tribunal on a controversial exercise of authority by the country's seven-member Supreme Electoral Tribunal , which dismissed 57 of 100 lawmakers in the Congress of Ecuador on Thursday. Tribunal president Dr. Santiago [...]
