Leading Monday's states brief, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich today signed the Safe Games Illinois Act , which bans the rental and sale of violent and sexually explicit games to those younger than 18 years of age. The legislation, passed in May, also requires retailers to label violent and sexually explicit games and to post signs [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit released an opinion Monday explaining its July 14 reversal of a ban on importing Canadian cattle enacted two years ago after Canada discovered its first domestic case of mad cow disease . The court found that Montana District Court Judge Richard Cebull's March ruling barring the [...]
The government of Rwanda announced Monday that it would release up to 30,000 prisoners suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide and other war crimes on a provisional basis. According to the Prosecutor General, those to be released are mostly the elderly, those under 18 at the time of the genocide, and those who have [...]
An Iranian court ruled on Monday that it lacked jurisdiction to investigate the death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi as a premeditated murder since the original court ruled the death unintentional. Kazemi died three weeks after being arrested in July 2003 for taking pictures of a government protest outside a prison in Tehran, and the [...]
An Italian court issued arrest warrants on Monday for six more CIA operatives in connection with the kidnapping of a radical Muslim in 2003 in Milan. Last month the court issued warrants for 13 members of the unit and is considering seeking extradition . The six warrants today were issued for the remaining members of [...]
Ethiopia's National Election Board ordered revotes in 20 of the country's 524 constituencies on Monday, after an investigation of election fraud found evidence of abuse at more than 100 polling stations. Violence and protests erupted after the original election, and only recently has the government ended a ban on election protests . The new votes [...]
Cuba has released nine people imprisoned for taking part in government protests, but still holds 17 people arrested last week as part of a crackdown on dissent. The US has previously objected to oppression of anti-government activists in Cuba. The nine released on Saturday had been picked up by police prior to a scheduled protest [...]
The head of the Iraq electoral commission has said that Iraq will open voter registration on August 1 in preparation for the scheduled October 15 vote on a new Iraqi constitution , and general elections in December. Reports are that the constitution draft will be done on schedule by August 15, despite a recent Sunni [...]
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, facing charges of crimes against humanity, was denied permission late last week to stand trial or serve his sentence in Sweden. Swedish Justice Ministry director Ann Marie Bolin Pennegaard told AFP that the request for Saddam to await trial, stand trial or serve his sentence in Sweden , made by [...]
With a federal appeals court giving the green light earlier this month, the US is looking to quickly restart military tribunals for declared "enemy combatants" being held at Guantanamo . Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that the trials will resume "as soon as possible", even though other appeals of the general issue to the [...]
