Leading Thursday's international brief, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland has called on Sudan to accept the presence of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur as essential to protecting Sudan's citizens. Egeland said that the AU, while effective in the short-term, was incapable of meeting the long-term demands that Darfur calls for and that [...]
Afghanistan Supreme Court Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada said Thursday that Afghan courts will not bow to outside pressure in the case of Abdul Rahman , who has been jailed for converting to Christianity and who could face the death penalty under Islamic sharia law if convicted of apostasy. Mawlavizada said that the "judiciary will act independently [...]
The UK Terrorism Bill is set to become law after the House of Lords Wednesday backed down on its objection to a controversial provision criminalizing the "glorification" of terrorism. The legislation, introduced in the wake of the July 7 London bombings , had gone back and forth between the two chambers six times, with the [...]
US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program "without congressional intervention or judicial intervention is just plain wrong." In an interview with the Associated Press, Specter said he was not hopeful the White House would listen to members of Congress who want [...]
The UN Commission on Human Rights was formally abolished Wednesday by a resolution of the UN Economic and Social Council adopted without a formal vote. The resolution calls for the completion of the commission's currently-suspended sixty-second session and the final shutdown of the organization on June 16, when it will be replaced by the new [...]
R v. Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School, UK House of Lords, March 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Georgia v. Randolph, Supreme Court of the United States, March 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Public Citizen v. Clerk, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, March 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the complaint . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday announced the indictment of 50 leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) , the country’s largest guerilla group, on narcotics and other charges. Noting that FARC produces half of the cocaine in the world and 60 percent of the US supply, the indictment accuses FARC of [...]
Three Samsung executives agreed to plead guilty Wednesday for conspiring to drive up the prices in the market for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. The three South Koreans will serve jail sentences between seven and eight months and pay fines of $250,000. The pleas await approval from a federal judge in San Francisco. The [...]
