US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday new guidelines for complying with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) . The new guidelines, designed to increase transparency in government, will rescind the Attorney General's FOIA Memorandum of October 12, 2001, which stated that the Department of Justice would defend decisions to withhold records "unless they lack [...]

The US House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would tax bonuses given to employees of companies that received money from government stimulus programs at 90 percent. The bill, which was passed by a vote of 328-93 , was drafted and voted on in reaction to large bonus payments made in the past week [...]

The US Senate on Thursday confirmed Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan as Solicitor General by a vote of 61-31. Kagan, the first woman to hold the office, faced opposition from Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings last month for her role in a lawsuit against the Department of Defense challenging the [...]

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that it would conduct an internal investigation into reports that Israeli soldiers have committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians. The announcement follows soldiers' reports of civilian killings and vandalism under liberal rules of engagement during a recent operation in the Gaza Strip. It also came on the same [...]

The Chinese government on Friday detained a former soldier who has called for an investigation into the 1989 killings of pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square . Chinese human rights organization Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW) said that Zhang Shijun, a former member of the Chinese army's 162nd motorized infantry division, has been detained (CRLW [...]

Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi reportedly committed suicide Wednesday after serving one month of a 30-month prison sentence for insulting Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . Both the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHR) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported that Mirsayafi had been suffering from depression , with ICHR reporting that Mirsayafi [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in an order made public Thursday that defense contractor CACI International is not immune from a lawsuit brought by Abu Ghraib torture victims, denying CACI's motion to dismiss. Judge Gerald Bruce Lee held that the four plaintiffs could go forward with [...]

Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav was indicted Thursday on two counts of rape for allegedly assaulting several female employees in the 1990s. The indictment, which was filed in Tel Aviv District Court, charges Katsav with two counts of rape, multiple counts of sexual harassment and forced indecent acts, and witness intimidation. The alleged rapes were [...]

The government of Pakistan President Ali Asif Zardari and his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday, asking the court to review its February decision banning former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother from holding elected office. The Supreme Court based its decision on a criminal conviction [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Wednesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will consider accepting in the US the 17 Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release. The DOJ is still exploring where to transfer cleared detainees, and has declined to repatriate the Uighurs despite Chinese demands because they have [...]