A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday that claims of unlawful treatment and wrongful death brought on behalf of two former Guantanamo Bay detainees are barred by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) . The two men, Yasser Al-Zahrani and Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed Al-Salami, were among [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued its annual report on Tuesday confirming the work-related killings of more than 70 journalists worldwide during 2009, the highest in the 30-year history of the CPJ. Of the 71 confirmed killings identified in the report, 51 are believed to be murders, with several others still under investigation. The [...]

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko filed a lawsuit on Tuesday with the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine claiming that last weekend's presidential election was corrupt. Tymoshenko alleges that widespread voter fraud allowed her opponent, Viktor Yanukovych , to win the election. An initial fraud appeal to the Ukrainian Central Election Committee was rejected. Tymoshenko said [...]

A member of the "Toronto 18" was convicted on Tuesday for his role in the failed 2006 terrorist plot to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange and other government buildings. Shareef Abdelhaleem, who pleaded not guilty last month, was convicted after the Canadian judge found that virtually no evidence existed to support his claims of entrapment. [...]

Kaplan, et al. v. Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al., US District Court for the District of Columbia, February 17, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the Second Lebanon War.

Hamsa Subramaniam discusses the knowledge she gained as a 2008 Clinton Fellow at SAATHII, an HIV/AIDS technical assistance organization in Chennai, India… In 2007, the World Health Organization reported that 2.3 million people above the age of 15 are infected with HIV in India, a prevalence which ranks second only to South Africa. Approximately 40 [...]

A Florida man wrongfully imprisoned for three years and seven months accepted $179,000 in compensation Tuesday, becoming the first person to receive compensation under the state's Victims of Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Act . Leroy McGee was convicted of robbery in 1991, a crime he did not commit. After his release, McGee refused to accept the [...]

The Bangladesh government announced on Tuesday that prosecutors and investigators for the country's war crimes tribunal should be appointed by the first week of March. The tribunal will be used to conduct fair and transparent trials for those accused of war crimes during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan . The announcement came after [...]

A closed prison court in Myanmar on Monday sentenced Naw Ohn Hla and three other women to two years imprisonment with hard labor. The women, supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi , were accused of causing public unrest. According to Nyan Win, spokesperson for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) , the [...]

The Icelandic Parliament began considering measures Tuesday aimed at increasing protections for journalists and promoting freedom of speech and transparency in government. The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) was developed by lawmakers in conjunction with Wikileaks, a non-profit website focused on exposing corruption and unethical actions perpetrated by governments and corporations. The measures were developed [...]