A Superior Court of Ontario judge Thursday threw out part of a secrecy law invoked to search a reporter's home for the source of the story she published on Maher Arar . Juliet O'Neill , a journalist with the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, had her home raided in 2004 after she published a story in 2003 [...]
Jon Greenbaum : "Since the 2004 election, one disturbing trend in election law has been the enactment of laws requiring voters to provide government-issued voter identification in order to cast ballot or documentation of citizenship in order to register. These laws, which have been enacted in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, and Missouri, have the impact of [...]
The US Defense Department Office of the Inspector General has concluded that the US military's use of a propaganda program in Iraq was legal, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday. While the program involved planting and paying for favorable news about US operations in Iraqi newspapers, the IG report – not yet publicly available – concludes [...]
The US District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday denied an emergency motion to prevent the US military from surrendering translator and accused kidnapper Mohammad Munaf, a US citizen, to Iraqi officials to face the death penalty. Munaf was convicted and sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge after being arrested in Romania [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed for the first time Thursday that Hezbollah used cluster bombs during the recent conflict with Israel. According to HRW: International humanitarian law (the laws of war) obliges warring parties to distinguish between combatants and civilians (the principle of distinction) and, when attacking legitimate military targets, to ensure that the military [...]
A massive demonstration attended by thousands of people protesting the disappearance of Jorge Julio Lopez clogged the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday. The protest represents the third time such a demonstration has taken place since the 77-year-old witness went missing last month after testifying against a former police official sentenced last month to [...]
Four US Army soldiers have been ordered to face court-martial for allegedly murdering Iraqi detainees in Thar Thar, a town near Samarra, some 60 miles north of Baghdad. Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard and Spc. Juston R. Graber allegedly released several detainees after a May 9 raid [...]
Judge Richard Posner of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit expressed skepticism Wednesday that an Indiana law requiring voters to show ID cards at the polls would prevent some citizens from casting ballots. During oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the Indiana law as disproportionately burdensome for the poor, elderly, minorities, and [...]
Hussein Rasheed, one of five co-defendants facing charges in the Saddam Hussein genocide trial , on Thursday claimed Iraqi court guards beat him in the presence of US witnesses after Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa threw both Hussein and Rasheed out of court last week . A spokesman for the court denied Rasheed's allegations saying [...]
Florida Judge Janet E. Ferris of the Leon County Circuit Court ordered that election supervisors be prohibited from affixing signs at polling places warning that votes for former US Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) will be counted for replacement candidate Joe Negron. Dawn Roberts of the State Elections Division previously told election supervisors to post warning [...]
