[JURIST] US Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) [official website] said Sunday he plans to introduce legislation in the next session of Congress to reinstate the military draft in the United States. Interviewed on CBS TV program Face the Nation [program website; interview video], he said that military conscription would prompt lawmakers [read more]

[JURIST] The United States and Russia signed a landmark trade agreement [press release] Sunday bringing Russia one step closer in its 13-year drive for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) [official website; JURIST news archive]. Under the agreement, Russia [JURIST news archive] will lower import tariffs on American goods [read more]

[JURIST] Iran's parliament [official website, in Persian] passed a bill Sunday instituting mandatory fingerprinting of all visiting US citizens. The predominantly conservative Majlis passed the bill by a margin of 135 to 26, and will next hand it to the Guardian Council [official website, in Persian] for review before it [read more]

[JURIST] Former Mexican Presidents Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1964-1970) [Wikipedia backgrounder], Luis Echeverria (1970-1976) [JURIST news archive], and Jose Lopez Portillo (1976-1982) [Wikipedia backgrounder] were responsible for "crimes against humanity" in connection with the massacres and tortures of hundreds of leftist activists during the 1960s and 1970s, according to an official [read more]

[JURIST] Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak [official website; BBC profile] called for the country's parliament to amend Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution [text] Sunday amid criticism from the opposition that the article effectively protects the ruling party from genuine competition in the 2011 presidential elections. Mubarak made the announcement in [read more]

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] attacked critics of President Bush's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive; US DOJ fact sheet, PDF] in a speech [transcript] at the Air Force Academy Saturday, saying their views are "shortsighted." Critics of the program, including the American Civil [read more]

[JURIST] Humans Right Watch [official website] urged the Chinese government Sunday to be more transparent about its practice of removing transplant organs from executed prisoners after Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu [China Vitae profile] admitted for the first time [UPI report] at a medical conference last week that most [read more]