Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday warned Iraqi interim leaders to avoid political purgings that could lead to corruption in the government in the wake of its recent formation. He also urged the government to push forward in drafting a constitution for Iraq , with an August deadline fast approaching. Rumsfeld, who made the comments [...]

A Cambodian group gathering evidence of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge government has appealed to governments worldwide for more evidence that can be used in the trials of former leaders. Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia , said requests for information had been sent to 42 embassies of countries that either [...]

Nepal has agreed to allow UN human rights workers to enter the country to monitor reported abuses by both government and Maoist rebel forces, the UN announced on Monday. Under the agreement signed by the Nepalese government and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , the OHCHR will set up regional [...]

John Negroponte , President Bush's selection for the new national intelligence director post, is expected to win Senate confirmation, but human rights questions dogging Negroponte from his time as ambassador to Honduras may slow the process. Confirmation hearings in the Senate Intelligence Committee begin Tuesday. Human rights groups have maintained that Negroponte supported human rights [...]

Puerto Rican legislators supporting US statehood said Monday they would try to push through a bill clarifying the territory's relations with the US over a veto by Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila. The bill, vetoed by Vila on Sunday, calls for a referendum by Puerto Ricans on whether to request that the US government honor any [...]

Three former Global Crossing executives have reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission where they will each pay a $100,000 civil fine without having to admit wrongdoing in "capacity swap" deals made before the telecommunications company went into bankruptcy. The SEC's civil complaint alleged that Global Crossing's former CEO Thomas Casey, former CFO [...]

A new opinion poll released Monday by the Financial Times shows that almost 70 percent of Britain's finance directors are opposed to the country adopting the new European constitution . Thirty percent of business managers responding to the FT poll said they "strongly oppose" Britain adopting the EU constitution, and another 38 percent said they [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Jide Nzelibe of Northwestern University School of Law says that if the new Iraqi government can stabilize the country's internal security situation, the time may be coming for President Bush to declare victory and order a US withdrawal if he doesn't want Congressional pressure for a pullout to mount… As the euphoria [...]

American oil services company Halliburton may have overcharged the Defense Department at least $212 million for its work providing fuel to Iraqi citizens, according to portions of Defense Contract Audit Agency audits released Monday by Rep. Henry Waxman , ranking member of the House Committee on Government Reform. In a letter sent to Rep. Christopher [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Tuesday, April 12. The US Senate convenes at 9:45 AM ET today, when it will consider H.R. 1268 , the Iraq/Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations bill. Watch a live webcast of the session. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee continues consideration of the [...]