Leading Zimbabwe human rights activist Jestina Mukoko has been taken to the high-security Chikurubi prison outside of Harare in violation of a court order that she be taken to a hospital, according to human rights lawyers Friday. Mukoko, who is charged with attempting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe , went missing for three weeks earlier [...]

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev Thursday signed anti-corruption legislation passed by the country's parliament earlier this month. Medvedev has pushed anti-corruption reforms since taking office in May. The new law imposes income reporting requirements on persons holding public office , restricts gifts and makes a variety of amendments to existing anti-corruption legislation. In a late September [...]

The UN General Assembly Wednesday adopted a resolution criticizing human rights violations in Myanmar . The resolution also called for the release of political prisoners, and expressed dissatisfaction with the country's transition to democracy, which, it alleges, has lacked transparency and fairness. An unnamed Myanmar representative in the chamber agreed that human exploitation was unacceptable, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Wednesday upheld a district court ruling that two Kentucky statutes regulating interstate wine sales were unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit agreed that KRS 243.155 and KRS 244.165 , requiring out-of-state wine to be purchased in-person, were discriminatory and thus violate the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution. [...]

Jennifer Turner : "On Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman revealed that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered aides to draw up plans for closing down the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. The fact that Defense Secretary Gates has finally taken this concrete action is an encouraging sign that President-elect Barack Obama intends to fulfill his [...]

US President W. George Bush on Tuesday issued presidential pardons to 19 people convicted of crimes that ranged from drug trafficking to forging US Treasury checks. Among those pardoned was Charles Thompson Winters, who was convicted of exporting military aircraft to Israel in 1948 in violation of the Neutrality Act of 1939 . Winters, who [...]

Germany filed a lawsuit against Italy in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Tuesday in a bid to block new claims for personal damages resulting from Nazi actions in World War II. Germany is arguing that an October decision by Italy's Court of Cassation which ordered Germany to pay 1 million euros (USD $1.3 million) [...]

The Iraqi parliament Tuesday approved an agreement that will permit 6,000 troops from the United Kingdom, Australia, Romania, and Estonia to remain in the country for a limited time after the current UN mandate authorizing the multi-national force in Iraq expires on December 31, 2008. The vote came after Sunni speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani offered his [...]

The Albanian Parliament on Monday adopted a law banning former members and affiliates of the nation's Communist-era secret police force from holding public office. The so-called lustration law will employ a 5-person commission to screen from political candidacy all associates of the Sigurimi secret service during Albania's Communist regime from November 1944 to December 1990. [...]

US federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald Tuesday asked the Illinois House of Representatives to limit its impeachment inquiry into Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and avoid looking into the criminal charges against him. Fitzgerald warned that an inquiry into the criminal charges could hamper the investigation. The impeachment committee, which has agreed to follow instructions from federal [...]