Private security contractors operating in Iraq will no longer be able to claim immunity from Iraqi laws under the new Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the Iraqi government, Bush administration officials said in a briefing for security firms Thursday. US and non-Iraqi contractors had been immune to prosecution under Iraqi law since 2003 under [...]

Russia's State Duma Friday approved amendments to the Russian Constitution that would extend presidential terms from four to six years and terms for Duma members from four to five years. The measure, which passed 392-57, was framed by supporters as a way to provide political stability in light of the country's economic difficulties, but the [...]

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed Thursday evening during a speech to the Federalist Society . Mukasey was rushed to George Washington University Hospital , where he remained Friday morning . Peter Carr, spokesperson for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a statement early Friday, saying: The Attorney General is conscious, conversant and alert. [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Manfred Nowak said Thursday that European countries should grant asylum to Guantanamo detainees who are eligible for release, but who risk persecution if returned to their home countries. Nowak called on the countries to accept the estimated 50-60 detainees to allow [...]

Prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) met Thursday with Rwandan prosecutor general Martin Ngoga to discuss the possible future transfer of cases from the ICTR to Rwandan courts. In a decision by the court earlier this week again denying the transfer of genocide suspect Jean-Baptiste Gatete , the ICTR commended Rwanda for [...]

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced Thursday that they will lift restrictions on former Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks . The announcement came after Hicks issued a plea by posting a video on the website of Australian advocacy group GetUp! , asking for members' help in lifting the restrictions so that he could "get [...]

Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Thursday formally asked ICC judges to issue arrest warrants for the leaders of rebel groups in Sudan's Darfur region . Ocampo had said last Friday at a meeting of states party to the ICC treaty that he would seek the warrants. The arrest warrants [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerian Guantanamo Bay detainees. In the first ruling on detainees' rights since the June Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush , Judge Richard Leon decided that the government's evidence was insufficient to persuade him that [...]

Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has been ordered to stand trial for "complicity in slanderous denunciation" in connection with the a long-running political scandal know as the Clearstream Affair . De Villepin is accused of having orchestrated the release of a fabricated list of government officials and business people who profited from illegal [...]

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg released a report Thursday saying that "French detention and immigration policies risk reducing human rights protection." laying out the findings of his visit to France in May, Hammarberg expressed specific concern with overcrowding and poor conditions in detention facilities already noted in a February memo , [...]