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 [...]

The Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) on Tuesday released results for the country's Monday elections, in which voters elected Sheikh Hasina as prime minister and members of her Bangladesh Awami League party as 228 of the country's 300 parliamentary representatives. The elections, which end two years of military rule in the country, were said to be generally [...]

The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on Tuesday postponed the trial of Muntadhar al-Zaidi , the journalist accused of throwing his shoes at US President George W. Bush . The trial will resume after the Iraqi High Judicial Council determines whether al-Zaidi should be charged with "assaulting a foreign leader," a crime punishable by [...]

Twenty-two Chinese dairy companies are expected to pay a total of $160 million to compensate the families of nearly 300,000 children harmed by melamine-contaminated milk , according to a Tuesday report by China Daily. Government sources have said that $129 million of the settlement will be made as lump sum payments to families whose children [...]

Matt Belcher : "If it weren't so gallingly embarrassing to the city of Big Shoulders, I would just laugh off the (alleged) Blagojevich exploits as another operatic example of the machine politics of the "Chicago way." For those of you not versed in the "Chicago way" please take note that it is very much like [...]

A Zimbabwean court on Monday delayed ruling on whether leading human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and eight other activists charged with plotting to overthrow the government should be released pending trial. Mukoko, the head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, and eight other activists were charged last week with recruiting or attempting to recruit people to [...]

Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin has said that Ireland would likely accept detainees released from the Guantanamo Bay military prison if US President-elect Barack Obama closed the facility. In an interview with the Irish Examiner published Monday, Martin noted that Ireland supports closure of Guantanamo and said it was a "logical follow-through" for [...]

Four criminal trials began Monday in China's Hebei province for persons accused of involvement in the country's recent melamine-tainted milk scandal. The four are generally accused in connection with the manufacture of two hundred tons of melamine-containing protein powder and adding it to raw milk before selling the mixture to Chinese dairies between November 2007 [...]

The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal on Sunday commenced a new trial of two Saddam-era officials, including senior figures of Hussein's government, for their alleged involvement in the execution of thousands of political opponents during Hussein’s rule. The defendants include Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid , better known in the Western media as “Chemical Ali,” who [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says that an international tribunal should be formed to prosecute persons involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks in order to avoid the politically unworkable alternatives of retaliatory surgical strikes and the extradition of Pakistani militants to India… Although a war between India and Pakistan [...]