A Russian historian who was researching his country's treatment of German prisoners of war during World War II was charged on Thursday with violating privacy laws. Mikhail Suprun was in the process of conducting research on the hardships faced by captured German soldiers and civilians held at prisons in Arkhangelsk, northeast of St. Petersburg, when [...]

Turkish human rights and foreign relations are reportedly compromising the country's efforts toward European Union (EU) accession, receiving mixed reviews Wednesday in the European Commission's annual reports on enlargement strategy and candidate progress . According to the reports, "oncerns remain in a number of areas, including freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of [...]

HR 2892: Making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for thefiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes, US House of Representatives, approved October 15, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on the issues relating to the anticipated closure of Guantanamo Bay.

The US House of Representatives voted 307-114 Thursday to approve legislation that would allow Guantanamo Bay detainees to be transferred to US soil for prosecution. The measure was part of a $42.7 billion spending bill for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) . The legislation would forbid the release of Guantanamo detainees onto US [...]

Two of the victims of Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff sued the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in federal court on Wednesday, seeking $2.4 million in damages. The complaint , filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York , alleges that the SEC owed a duty of care [...]

Gabor Rona : "On October 9, the Department of Justice announced the transfer of Guantanamo detainee Khalid Abdullah Mishal al Mutairi, to his home state, Kuwait. "On July 29, 2009, a federal court ruled that al Mutairi may no longer be detained under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and ordered the [...]

A court in China sentenced six individuals to death on Thursday for their part in the July riots in Urumqi , capital of China's Xinjiang province. The convictions stemmed from assaults that resulted in the deaths of at least four people and damage to property estimated at over 1.6 million yuan. In addition to the [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday reiterated her support for the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict . In a statement to the 12th Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council on human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Pillay said that she agrees [...]

The trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced on Wednesday that the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will begin on October 26. Karadzic will stand trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity after the ICTY Appeals Chamber rejected his plea for immunity, allegedly [...]

Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications announced Wednesday that broadband Internet access would become a legal right for all citizens. Becoming the first country to institute such a policy, the agency declared that Internet providers must afford everyone a connection that is at least one megabyte per second. Communications Minister Suvi Linden said that the [...]