The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit seeking an order compelling Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to stop visiting the Yasukuni war shrine , a shrine that honors all Japanese war dead, including war criminals. The lawsuit, filed by 137 Japanese and South Korean plaintiffs and a South Korean advocacy group also sought [...]
Human rights groups have condemned the decision of the al-Warraq Misdemeanor Court in Egypt to sentence controversial newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa to a year in prison for publishing a report critical of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak . The case against Eissa, the former editor of the independent weekly al-Dustour, arose from an April 2005 report [...]
A London-based civil liberties group has asked data-protection and privacy officials in more than a dozen countries to prevent the further release of confidential financial information to American authorities. The watchdog group, Privacy International , said Wednesday that it had filed complaints in 13 European nations, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong [...]
Nepalese officials have delayed the drafting of an interim constitution, which will allow Maoist rebels to join an interim government, for at least another two weeks, according to Laxman Prasad Aryal, a former Supreme Court Justice and leader of the six-person Nepali Interim Constitution Drafting Committee. The interim government and Maoist rebels negotiated a landmark [...]
Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk on Tuesday reversed an earlier decision revoking citizenship from former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali , who was born in Somalia. Ali resigned from the Dutch parliament in May after Verdonk declared Hirsi Ali's 1997 naturalization invalid because she lied on the application. During her 2002 confirmation hearings, Ali admitted to [...]
Former US attorney general turned Saddam Hussein defense lawyer Ramsey Clark told a Washington press conference Tuesday that executing Saddam only would only precipitate more sectarian violence in Iraq. He made the comment only a few days after the New York Times reported that Hussein believes the tribunal will issue a death sentence against him [...]
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday held in the consolidated cases of Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon and Bustillo v. Johnson that suppression of statements given to the police is not an appropriate remedy when police fail to inform foreign nationals of their right to have their consulates notified of their arrests under the Vienna Convention on [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled in Beard v. Banks Wednesday that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections could set regulations forbidding the most difficult inmates from reading and possessing general-interest newspapers and magazines, despite arguments that such regulations violated the First Amendment. Plaintiff Ronald Banks, a convicted murderer considered a security risk, sued the Department in [...]
Guards at Guantanamo Bay found nooses in prisoners' cells after three detainees committed suicide earlier this month by hanging themselves using clothing and bed linens, according to the US detention center's commander. Rear Adm. Harry Harris also said Tuesday that detainees stage have staged suicide attempts and hunger strikes in an effort to undermine the [...]
The US Supreme Court held Wednesday in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry and three other consolidated cases that only one of the new voting districts created by the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan that helped Republicans gain six seats in the US Congress is invalid under the Voting Rights Act . The [...]
