The Quebec Superior Court began hearing arguments Wednesday on the pivotal issue of Canadian torture victims' right to sue foreign governments and foreign officials on Canadian soil. The case was brought by Stephan Hashemi, son of slain Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi , against the Iranian government and three officials for their role in the 2003 [...]

Albania is willing to accept additional Guantanamo Bay detainees, Prime Minister Sali Berisha told reporters on Wednesday, calling closure of the prison a "human rights issue." Berisha said that he will not accept Chinese Uighurs due to concerns for preserving positive relations with China: Naturally, I have said that we can not accept Yughurs, because [...]

The US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday approved the Financial Stability Improvement Act to address various economic dangers posed by large financial institutions. The bill seeks to increase regulation and to allow government regulators to control the collapse of large financial firms to lessen any potential economic strains. This would allow for [...]

Current US immigration detention and transfer policies unnecessarily interfere with individual detainees' rights to counsel and procedural fairness, according to two reports released Wednesday urging reforms to the system. According to a report by the Constitution Project , the government should: improv access to counsel for immigration detainees and, more generally, for all non-citizens in [...]

The Australian Senate on Wednesday voted against legislation aimed at reducing carbon pollution. The Senate voted 41-33 against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 and ten related bills that would have established a cap-and-trade system. The scheme, similar to the current European system, would have been implemented by July 2011 and aimed to increase [...]

The New York Senate rejected legislation Wednesday that would have legalized same-sex marriage . The sponsors of the bill, supported by New York Governor David Paterson , were unable to marshal the votes required to pass the bill out of the state senate, where the Democratic Party holds a single seat majority. Despite earlier suggestions [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday ordered former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba to remain in custody until his trial next spring. The ruling reverses a decision issued in August ordering Bemba's conditional release. The order for release was opposed by ICC prosecutors who appealed the original decision. Bemba remained in [...]

Iranian economist and journalist Saeed Laylaz was sentenced to a nine-year jail term on Wednesday for possessing classified information and participating in protests following the contested presidential election in June . Laylaz has been a longstanding critic of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , and was an editor for the reform newspaper Sarmayeh , which was [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection on the constitutional scope of states' authority to modify property boundaries without a judicial hearing. At issue is whether Florida's restoration of storm-eroded beaches by modifying private property boundaries under the Beach and Shore Preservation [...]

The Malaysian high court ruled Tuesday that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will stand trial on charges on sodomy early next year. Counsel for Anwar had argued for the case to be thrown out since medical reports showed no conclusive proof of penetration, but Justice Mohamad Zabidin concluded that medical reports could not be used as [...]