This is one of several recent cases dealing with attempted bombings in the US. Last month a judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] sentenced [JURIST report] convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam, the "Millennium bomber," to a 37-year prison sentence for a 1999 plot to blow up the Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve. Also that month, Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri [NYT profile; JURIST news archive], accused of bombing the USS Cole while it was in port in Yemen in 2000, boycotted [JURIST report] his pretrial hearing at the facility. In May a jury in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website] convicted [JURIST report] naturalized American citizen Adis Medunjanin for his role in a conspiracy to bomb the New York City subway system in September 2009. In February the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan [official website] sentenced [JURIST report] Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] to life imprisonment for his attempt to detonate an underwear bomb [JURIST report] while on Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Violence and abuse in Libya has been a concern in the aftermath of the Libya conflict [JURIST feature]. Earlier this month the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST backgrounder] urged the Libyan government [JURIST report] not to grant amnesty to war criminals. In March AI released a report accusing the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) [official website] of allowing the abuse and torture [JURIST report] of supporters of former leader Gaddafi by unofficial militias. Last year, AI released a report detailing similar abuses faced by prisoners [JURIST report] in Libya. The ICC also announced that it would not grant immunity [JURIST report] to any person perpetrating crimes against humanity in Libya.

The trial against the former Ukrainian PM has sparked international criticism. In September the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee [official website] unanimously passed [JURIST report] a resolution [text] calling for Ukraine to release Tymoshenko from prison. It condemned the current Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych [official website] for his role in the politically motivated imprisonment. In August the Ukrainian Supreme Court [official website, in Ukrainian] upheld Tymoshenko's abuse of office conviction [JURIST report], reasoning that there would be no basis to rule in favor of the former PM and that the prison sentence is appropriate considering the charges against her. During the appeal the government denied allegations that the criminal proceedings against Tymoshenko were a measure initiated by Yanukovich to prevent her from participating in the October elections. The decision came only a day after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] held a hearing [JURIST report] on Tymoshenko's appeal. Also in August Ukrainian prosecutors urged the Supreme Court not to hear her appeal [JURIST report]. Prosecutors told the court that Tymoshenko's trial had already established her guilt in the case, and asked the judges maintain her seven-year sentence [JURIST report] in the case.

The ICC recorded its first conviction in March 2012 in a case that not only sent Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo [JURIST report] to prison for his use of child soldiers, but also helped the court establish its guiding principles for providing reparations to victims. However, to the dismay of many, individuals such as Joseph Kony [JURIST news archive] of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army and Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda [JURIST report] remain at large. Currently, the ICC has opened investigations in the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, the Darfur region of Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, and northern Uganda with 13 pending cases against 21 individuals from those countries.

Based on the encouraging results of the ICAO Council meeting 9 November—and the constructive engagement of our international partners in the relevant discussions—the EU is convinced that a global solution for addressing the fast growing aviation emissions from international aviation is within reach at the upcoming ICAO Assembly in 2013. As a gesture of good faith the EU will "stop the clock" on the implementation of the international aspects of its ETS aviation by deferring the obligation to surrender emissions allowances from air traffic to and from the EU by one year.

Last December, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] upheld [JURIST report] the EU law forcing foreign airlines using EU airports to pay fees for greenhouse gas emissions. The finding that the carbon emission fees do not violate international law, as several US and Canadian airlines had argued, was expected after ECJ Advocate General Juliane Kokott issued an opinion to that effect [JURIST report] in October 2011. The foreign airlines had filed for judicial review of EU Directive 2008/101/EC [text, PDF], which announced that airlines would have to comply with heightened emissions regulations while using EU airports beginning on January 1, 2012. The airlines argued that the directive violated the Chicago Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Open Skies Agreement [text, PDF]. However, the ECJ ruled that the directive does not violate the international agreements, noting that the EU is not a party to the Chicago Convention.

A fundamental principle of international human rights law is non-discrimination. This applies in all areas to all people. In terms of religion, the Constitution of Indonesia upholds this principle, stating that every person shall be free to choose and to practice the religion of his or her choice. Indonesia has a rich culture and history of diversity and tolerance. At the same time, it risks losing this if firm action is not taken to address increasing levels of violence and hatred towards religious minorities and narrow and extremist-interpretations of Islam.

In July an Indonesian court sentenced [JURIST report] a Shia cleric to two years in prison on blasphemy charges. Chief Judge Purnomo Amin Tjahjo of the Sampang district court announced the sentence of Tajul Muluk, whose teachings were deemed to have deviated from mainstream Islam resulting in "public anxiety" over Muluk's pronouncements. In March the Jayapura district court in Papua, Indonesia convicted [JURIST report] five men of treason for declaring the province's independence and raising an outlawed separatist flag at a peaceful pro-independence rally in October 2011.

The protocol gives the world an orderly rules-based instrument for countering and eventually eliminating a sophisticated international criminal activity that costs a lot, also for health. Illicit trade is bad for health because it circumvents measures, like taxes and price increases, that are known to reduce demand. In other words, illicit trade seriously compromises effective implementation of the treaty.

The FCTC was adopted in May 2003 by the World Health Assembly and opened for signature through June 2004. In October Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev proposed legislation that would ban tobacco advertisements [JURIST report] and public smoking and raise taxes on tobacco products. Earlier in October the High Court of Australia [official website] published its reasons for dismissing a lawsuit [JURIST reports] brought by several large tobacco companies challenging new labeling requirements [TPP Act] that require cigarette packages to display graphic images warning of the dangers of smoking and ban brand logos. Similar issues have arisen in the US. In August the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that tobacco companies do not need to print graphic warnings of the danger of smoking, but in March the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] ruled that graphic cigarette label warnings are constitutional [JURIST report]. The court decided unanimously that the portions of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act [HR 1256 text], signed [JURIST report] by President Barack Obama in 2009 and designed to limit the tobacco industry's ability to advertise to children, are a valid restriction on commercial free speech.

The recent trials for those accused of participating in "Mensalao" have been hailed as a potential turning point [NYT report] for Brazil in the country's fight against corruption. However, observers warned that with Brazil hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, the risk for corruption remains high [WSJ report]. In August 2011 Brazilian Judge Patricia Acioli, known for taking a hard-line against corrupt officials and militia death squads, was shot and killed [JURIST report] outside of her home by two masked men on motorbikes. Acioli was one of three judges executed [O Globo report, in Portuguese] in Brazil in the past eight years for their investigations into organized crime.