The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Tuesday called for greater judicial cooperation to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said that while pirates should ideally be tried in their home country or in the country that owns the seized ship, this is not always feasible [...]

The legislature in the Papua province of Indonesia announced Tuesday that it will postpone a decision on whether to implant certain individuals infected with HIV/AIDS with microchips to monitor their movements. A vote scheduled for next week will be put off in response to human rights concerns . The bill would have attempted to monitor [...]

The Iraqi cabinet on Wednesday approved draft legislation that would require most non-US foreign troops to leave Iraq by mid-2009. The legislation must now be submitted to the Iraqi parliament for approval. A government spokesperson said that Iraq would retain the right to ask some countries to stay . Also on Wednesday, UK Prime Minister [...]

The Council of the District of Columbia passed legislation Tuesday increasing the requirements of gun owners in Washington, DC. The legislation contains a number of provisions that the city council hopes will make it more difficult for criminals obtain weapons and make it easier for law enforcement officers to track them down. The requirements include [...]

Pui-yin Lo : "The judgment of Mr. Justice Andrew Cheung of the Hong Kong Court of First Instance on December 8, 2008, held that: "the disenfranchisement provisions relating to voting and registration contravene the right to vote constitutionally guaranteed under article 26 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and article [...]

The US military reported on Tuesday the transfer of 39 high-value detainees from the custody of US-led multinational force to an Iraqi controlled prison. The detainees were all former members of the regime of Saddam Hussein , and have already been convicted or are scheduled to stand trial at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq [...]

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Christopher Cox on Tuesday said that he would launch an immediate investigation into how the fraud allegedly perpetrated by Bernard Madoff went undetected for so long. The SEC filed charges last week in New York against Madoff and his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC for an [...]

On the eve of a long-anticipated ruling in the Bagosora "Military I" genocide trial, JURIST Special Guest Columnist Roland Amoussouga, Spokesperson and Senior Legal Adviser at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), reviews the Tribunal's challenges and achievements as it moves towards completion of its mandate… Two judgements are scheduled for this week at [...]

The US Department of Defense (DOD) on Tuesday announced that three Algerian Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to their adopted homeland of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The transfer follows a November ruling by Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia that five Algerian detainees must be released immediately. The [...]

Bangladeshi President and head of the military backed interim government Iajuddin Ahmed on Monday signed the Emergency Powers (Repeal) Ordinance 2008, lifting a two-year state of emergency in order to prepare for December 29 parliamentary elections. The state of emergency, declared in January 2007 , suspended democratic rights throughout the country. The Ordinance, which takes [...]