The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism Martin Scheinin sharply criticized Turkey's anti-terrorism laws Thursday, claiming Turkey's definition of terrorism is too broad and vague with respect to local terrorist groups. In particular, Scheinin stated that the 2001 law "defines terrorism based on its purpose or aims rather than referring to specific [...]
Indian officials have arrested Alok Tomar, editor of the obscure Indian magazine Senior India, for publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Officials charged Tomar with hurting religious sentiments in India, although it is unknown whether the cartoon published by Tomar resembled the Muhammad caricatures first published in a Danish newspaper that have ignited protest [...]
The International Committee of the Red Cross Friday called on individuals and groups in Iraq to comply with international humanitarian law while officials imposed daytime curfews in several Iraqi cities in an attempt to subdue a wave of violence resulting from Wednesday's bombing of the Askariya shrine , one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites. The [...]
Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr. has launched a probe into the state's indigent defense system in response to funding and availability problems for public defenders, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina , which has sharply decreased the number of traffic fines from which the program primarily derives its funding. Foti issued subpoenas [...]
A series of internal Canadian government memos newly declassified under the Canadian Access to Information Act has increased speculation that the US Central Intelligence Agency has flown terror suspects through Canada as part of an extraordinary rendition program transferring them to foreign prisons. One note stamped "secret" says that over 70 flights allegedly tied to [...]
A US federal judge has refused to grant an immediate injunction against Research in Motion , which would have shut down the company's BlackBerry wireless service in the United States. In 2003, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that RIM violated a patent held by NTP, Inc. and NTP had [...]
Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, Jordan's UN ambassador and advisor to the secretary-general on the sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations peacekeeping operations, has told the UN Security Council that it could be three or four more years before the "unacceptably high" number of sexual abuse charges against UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic [...]
FBI memos released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act action suggest that senior US military officials, up to and including former Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, were aware of and endorsed the use of harsh interrogation techniques against Guantanamo Bay detainees, including putting hoods on prisoners, [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Friday rejected a request by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for provisional release so that he might receive medical treatment in Russia. In the decision , the ICTY said they did not feel comfortable temporarily releasing Milosevic because they were not satisfied that he would [...]
The United States and British governments knew about illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq over four years ago, an Australian judicial inquiry into the UN oil-for-food program was told Friday. During Friday's hearing , a statement from Michael Wallbanks, manager of the Dubai branch of shipping group P&O Nedlloyd Ltd. , was read. [...]
