The British government is willing to help the United States close the Guantanamo Bay military prison by accepting some released prisoners who have no previous connection to the UK, the Times reported Thursday. The paper quoted unnamed officials who indicated that the Foreign Office was the department most supportive of the position, although accepting non-UK [...]

US Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. pressed his call for raises for federal judges in his 2008 year-end report on the federal judiciary, released Wednesday. Roberts compared the $6.8 billion allocated to the federal judiciary to the $3 trillion federal budget, labeling the judiciary's cost miniscule. He detailed steps that have been taken by [...]

Judge Richard Leon for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday ruled that the US government could continue to hold Guantanamo Bay detainees Hisham Sliti and Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi . Both men had filed habeas corpus petitions challenging their detention, but Leon found that the government had met its [...]

A Zimbabwe magistrate ruled Wednesday that Zimbabwe Peace Project leader Jestina Mukoko and several others would have to remain in jail until their hearings before the Zimbabwe Supreme Court. Mukoko and the other activists were charged last week with recruiting or attempting to recruit people to undergo military training to overthrow the government of president Robert Mugabe . Following accusations [...]

Bill Marler : "According to the latest news reports, the 22 companies implicated in the Chinese powdered milk crisis are likely to pay 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) in compensation to the families of the over 294,000 children sickened by tainted milk products. The reports indicate that the compensation will range from 2,000 yuan ($290) [...]

Guillermo Otálora Lozano : "The Italian rulings against Germany for crimes committed during the occupation reflect a growing trend in domestic courts' practice towards the lifting of immunities when international crimes are at stake. The ICJ has already dealt with issues of immunities in the Arrest Warrant (DRC v. Belgium) (2002) and Criminal Assistance (Djibouti [...]

Judge Henry Kennedy for the US District Court for the District of Columbia  on Wednesday ruled in favor of three former US soldiers suing North Korea for alleged mistreatment they suffered after the country seized their ship in 1968. According to the ruling, William Massie, Donald McClarren, Dunnie Tuck and other crew members of the USS [...]

William Thomas Massie, et al. v. The Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, US District Court for the District of Columbia, December 31, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Chinese diary company chairwoman Tian Wenhua on Wednesday pleaded guilty to charges that she allowed her company to sell milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine even after she knew of the contamination, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Tian and three other executives of Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group , Wang Yuliang, Hang Zhiqi, and [...]

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday signed into law amendments to the Russian Constitution extending presidential terms from four to six years and terms for parliament members from four to five years. The amendments were recently approved by both houses of parliament and all 83 regional parliaments , and will not apply to Medvedev's current presidential [...]