A government panel agreed Monday that Japan's succession law should be changed to allow the first-born child, irrespective of gender, the right to ascend to the throne, which would for the first time allow female members of the royal family to become monarchs. The advisory panel has been meeting since January to study the succession [...]
French Judge Brigitte Raynaud is in Rwanda investigating accusations that Paris helped a former Hutu government massacre of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide , French Ambassador Dominique Decherf said Tuesday. Last year, Rwanda's Tutsi President Paul Kagame first accused France of training and arming Hutu militias who were behind the 100-day slaughter that killed 800,000. [...]
Leading Tuesday's international brief, Kenya's anti-draft constitution Orange Movement has gained an insurmountable lead according to the Electoral Commission of Kenya following Monday's national referendum on the proposed draft Constitution . The Electoral Commission released official results that put the Orange Movement up by more than one million votes, nearly 16 percent of those voting. [...]
German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, head of a UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri returned to Lebanon Tuesday as he prepares to close the investigation and prepare a final report due to UN Security Council by December 15. Hariri was assassinated by a truck bomb in Beirut earlier this year [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Geoffrey S. Corn, Lt. Col. US Army (Ret.) and former Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters, now a professor at South Texas College of Law, says that the phenomenon of hyper-technical legal analysis detached from the moral and pragmatic considerations grounding the law of war in [...]
EU states have said they plan to write a joint letter to the US government seeking clarification about whether the US has been running illegal covert prisons in the EU as part of its war on terror. The UK, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, agreed to compose the letter after the [...]
The Proposed New Constitution of Kenya, Drafted and Published by the Attorney-General Pursuant to Section 27 of the Constitution of Kenya Review Act, August 22, 2005 . Read the full text of the draft constitution . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The Israeli Knesset voted 84-0 Monday in favor of a preliminary motion to dissolve itself shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defected from the right-wing Likud political party he helped create. Once the bill is finally approved, a parliamentary election must take place within 90 days, well before the originally-scheduled November 2006 date. Knesset [...]
Lobbyist Michael Scanlon pleaded guilty in federal district court Monday to one count of bribery, a charge anticipated after a DOJ criminal information disclosed Friday accused him of defrauding Indian clients and "providing things of value" to US Representative Bob Ney (R-NY) . Scanlon agreed to pay $19 million in restitution to the Indian tribes [...]
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said in an interview with Reuters reported Monday that the US has lost international influence due to its position on the Iraq war and the its record on the rights of Guantanamo detainees , among other issues. "The Iraq war has weakened the moral authority of [...]
