US Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has said she plans to introduce legislation in the Senate that would prevent the US military from using cluster bombs in civilian areas by cutting off federal funding for such weapons until the Defense Department "articulate a new policy that will minimize civilian death and suffering from these weapons." In [...]
Lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan have called for the text of Kyrgyzstan's new constitution, adopted in November, to made publicly available after an unexplained three-week delay. Kyrgyz laws are usually published soon after they are passed. The new constitution generally reallocates power away from the president towards the parliament by limiting presidential power to dissolve the parliament, [...]
A Nepali government minister indicated Sunday that the interim constitution, drafted in August , will be signed into law within a few days. The interim draft encompassing 173 articles is designed to replace the current constitution until a new representative body is elected and drafts a permanent constitution. The draft must be approved by each [...]
A confidential report on the use of wiretap evidence being prepared for UK government ministers by officials in the Home Office has as one of its two basic options setting up a special group of judges who would oversee wiretap-related cases against terror suspects, according to a report published in the Scotsman Monday. The UK [...]
A Philippines trial court Monday convicted one US Marine and acquitted three other Marines on charges of raping a 23-year-old Filipino woman at a Navy base in Manila last year. The verdict is subject to an automatic appeal. Lance Corporal Daniel Smith will serve a 40 year sentence in a Filipino prison and will pay [...]
The defense team for Saddam Hussein Sunday formally appealed his death sentence for crimes against humanity committed in the town of Dujail in 1982. The November 5 condemnation to death by hanging was automatically appealable to a nine-judge Appeals Chamber set up under the statute of the Iraqi High Tribunal . Article 27 of the [...]
The government of Turkey has officially condemned an Argentinean bill that refers to the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey around the time of World War I as genocide and establishes a day of annual commemoration on April 24. Turkey has asked the Argentine government to block the draft law which last week passed the [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has postponed until further notice the war crimes trial of Serb nationalist Vojislav Seselj , who has been on a hunger strike since November 11, saying in a ruling Friday that he will likely be too weak to participate in his defense. ICTY spokesperson Refik Hodzic [...]
Former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet suffered a heart attack Sunday, but is in stable yet serious condition after undergoing emergency surgery. The development represents another setback to recent attempts by Chilean authorities to bring the ex-dictator to justice for dozens of human rights violations he is accused of committing during his military rule from 1973 [...]
A spokesman for Iran's Guardian Council said Saturday that it has approved a bill passed by Iran's Majlis two weeks ago instituting mandatory fingerprinting of all visiting US citizens. The bill is intended to "reciprocate behavior of American officials towards Iranian citizens," he told reporters. The US-VISIT program , in place since 2002, requires the [...]
