The EU on Monday declined to renew its mandate of reforming Guinea-Bissau security forces, citing the breakdown of law and order in the country. The EU SSR Guinea-Bissau Mission was first launched in June 2008 and was intended to provide assistance to the west African nation’s security forces in developing a legal framework in which [...]

A UK-based women’s rights group filed suit Friday against the new coalition government over its 2010 budget, claiming the drastic spending cuts in it will have a disproportionately negative impact on women. The accusation stems from a gender impact study commissioned by Labour Party MP and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities Yvette Cooper and [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Monday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the state of Virginia challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted health care reform law . The lawsuit , which challenges a provision of the law requiring every individual to purchase [...]

Zanzibar election officials announced Sunday that voters have approved a constitutional amendment creating a coalition government. The amendment, approved by 66.4 percent of voters , will create two vice-presidential seats in the hopes of reliving political tensions between Zanzibar’s rival parties ahead of the October 31 general elections. The seats will be allocated to the [...]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday announced the composition of an international panel to investigate the May flotilla incident , in which Israeli forces raided several Turkish ships bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip . The panel will consist of four members, including former New Zealand premier Geoffrey Palmer , outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe [...]

A special Bangladeshi military court sentenced 14 members of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guard Monday for their roles in a February 2009 mutiny in the northeastern district of Sunamganj. The tribunal, led by BDR head Maj. Gen. Mainul Islam, fined each of the men Tk 100 and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from [...]

A Malaysian court on Monday granted a defense motion to adjourn the sodomy trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for a week. The move comes after the defense tried to have the charges against Anwar quashed after allegations of an affair between a prosecutor and Anwar’s accuser surfaced. In adjourning the case until next Monday, [...]

The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) officially went into effect on Sunday as binding international law. The CCM bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster bombs, weapons that break apart, releasing large numbers of smaller, self-contained explosives which spread out before detonating on impact. Unexploded components that fail to detonate present a serious [...]

US Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk announced Friday that the US will file a case against Guatemala for labor rights violations. The case, filed under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) , will be the first time the US has pursued a labor violations claim against a free trade partner. Addressing Guatemala’s [...]

The Constitutional Council , France’s highest constitutional authority, ruled Friday that French police may no longer hold suspects for 48 hours without telling them their rights or bringing charges. Since President Nicolas Sarkozy’s came to power in 2007 the number of people in France taken into custody and questioned without charge has exploded . In [...]