Over 50 percent of eligible voters in Montenegro have already cast their ballots in Sunday's referendum on independence from Serbia, according to ballot observers from the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) , meeting the threshold requirement to validate the referendum . Voters have until 9 PM to vote on whether the small republic will become [...]

Government officials in Iran are working on a draft bill , that would encourage a return to traditional Islamic religious dress in the workplace and in public. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency , Majlis deputies gave preliminary approval to the draft last Sunday in Iran's parliament. The bill will establish a Cultural Commission [...]

Travis County Prosecutor Ronnie Earle has filed an appeal in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals , the highest criminal court in the state, requesting that conspiracy charges against US Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) be reinstated. Last month, the Texas Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss the indictment but [...]

Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner has said that an estimated 35,000 detention beds are required to turn the Department's maligned "catch and release" program for dangerous illegal immigrants into a "catch and return" policy. In a report Friday, Skinner said that while the number of illegal immigrants apprehended rose 19 percent from [...]

Finstuen v. Edmondson, District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, Judge Robin Cauthron, May 20, 2006 Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

In his weekly radio address Saturday President Bush publicly pressed his case for immigration reform for the third time this week and urged the Senate to pass a comprehensive immigration bill by the end of May so that negotiations can begin with the House on a compromise he can sign into law. In addition to [...]

The UN Committee against Torture has given Senegal 90 days to fulfill its obligations under the Convention Against Torture to put former Chad President Hissene Habre on trial for torture crimes and rights offenses stemming from his 1982-90 rule in Chad or extradite him to Belgium where he has been charged with crimes against humanity [...]

UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said Saturday that the British government will ask the European Court of Human Rights to review a long-standing ban against EU countries deporting individuals to countries where they would be at risk of torture or death, a practice known in international law by the French term refoulement . The ban [...]

Russia Friday assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (COE) , the assembly responsible for maintaining human rights and democracy in Europe. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov outlined his country's priorities as head of the organization, which include working toward creating "pan-European" legal standards through the [...]

Lawyers representing Hurricane Katrina evacuees filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court on Friday, seeking an injunction against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) preventing the agency from ending housing benefits after the twelve-month housing vouchers issued by FEMA expire. The suit, filed by Houston-based law firm Caddell & Chapman and a collection of public [...]