Turkish police on Tuesday arrested 56 people charged with plotting to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) , including two retired generals. They were arrested after the Istanbul prosecutor issued an indictment linking them to the Ergenekon group case. The group is allegedly responsible for bombing the headquarters of the newspaper Cumhuriyet , [...]

The Italian government on Tuesday asked the country's Constitutional Court to dismiss kidnapping charges against US and Italian intelligence officers, arguing that allowing the case to go forward would harm the country's national security interests. The case involves 26 Americans being tried in absentia and five former Italian intelligence officials charged in the 2003 abduction [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi that challenged his confinement based on a request from al-Sharbi himself. According to al-Sharbi's attorney, Judge Emmet Sullivan made the decision after a private hearing conducted Friday through a video [...]

Spain's General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) on Tuesday said that there will be an investigation into the failure of Judge Baltasar Garzon to report his earnings while on sabbatical in the US. Garzon, famed for indicting Osama bin Laden and former Latin American dictator Augusto Pinochet , took a leave of absence and accepted [...]

The Supreme People's Court of China will take steps to eliminate judicial corruption, according to a report delivered Tuesday to second session of the Eleventh National People's Congress by Chief Justice Wang Shengjun . Wang reported that that 712 court officials were punished for misconduct in 2008 and that such corruption has negative social impacts [...]

Head of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Ziaul Islam said Tuesday that there are no plans in place to lift the ban on several websites that have posted a recording in which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is criticized by army officers over how she handled the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny in late February. The [...]

A group of lawyers called Monday for the formation of an International Finance Court to adjudicate the issues around the Bernard Madoff fraud case. The Madoff Case Global Alliance of Law Firms, established last month at a meeting in Spain, aims to form an international network to facilitate sharing information and developing strategies. They say [...]

Israeli rights group Yesh Din filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Israel Monday, accusing the State of Israel of violating international law based on the mining operations it conducts within the West Bank. According to the complaint, the mining removes 12 million tons of stone and gravel each year from the West Bank, [...]

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga announced Monday that US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents from the US Embassy in Nairobi will assist in investigating the killing of two human rights activists last week. Odinga requested US assistance , recognizing that there would be a serious issue of credibility because the police themselves are among [...]

US President Barack Obama signed an executive order Monday which removed the previous administration's restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. The order fulfills Obama's campaign promise to reverse the limitations that were put in place eight years ago by the Bush administration. Obama stated his reasoning for removing the barriers in [...]