Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday on charges of insulting Islam and causing sectarian strife in his blog . Nabil, a 22-year-old former law student, had posted on the internet statements critical of Islamic authorities and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak , calling him a dictator. Nabil also allegedly [...]

Jailed Chinese newspaper ex-editor Yu Huafeng has had his eight-year sentence reduced by one year, according to Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Daily News on Thursday. Huafeng and his colleague Li Minying were both convicted in 2004 for embezzlement, bribery and corruption. Both men claimed the money in question was obtained legally and used for [...]

Speaking publicly for the first time, Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr said Thursday that he was tortured by Egyptian officials during his four-year detention in Egypt following an alleged 2003 kidnapping and extraordinary rendition from Milan. Nasr, who has been at the heart of Italian judicial proceedings against US and Italian intelligence agents implicated [...]

The Enron shareholder derivative lawsuit will be tried in April as previously scheduled, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. US District Judge Melinda Harmon denied a motion filed by defendants Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc. and Credit Suisse Group to delay the trial pending the outcome of an appeal to the US Fifth Circuit Court of [...]

The Philippines will investigate and eventually prosecute those responsible for extra-judicial killings, President Gloria Arroyo said Wednesday, one day after a visiting UN official released a report revealing a high number of such killings. On Tuesday, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston reported that his ten-day investigation showed that the [...]

Former Sierra Leone Defense Minister Sam Hinga Norman died of heart failure Thursday, several weeks before a verdict was due in his war crimes trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) , the Court announced Thursday. Norman, who passed away in a military hospital in Dakar, Senegal after being transferred there for medical [...]

A spokesperson for the US Army Criminal Investigation Command said Wednesday that it had found "insufficient evidence" to support allegations by former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan that he was tortured by US personnel following his arrest in 2003 after he reportedly refused to reveal certain information. Ramadan is currently facing a death sentence [...]

Canada's highest-ranking judges have criticized the Conservative government's changes to the regional panels that screen candidates for federal judgeships as a threat to judicial independence. The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) , made up of the chief justices and associate chief justices of Canada's superior courts, issued a statement Tuesday saying that "judges can continue to [...]

The new governor of Maryland testified before legislators Wednesday that the state's death penalty should be abolished because it is "inherently unjust," ineffective as a deterrent and a drain on resources. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) , who took office last month, appeared before two committees of the General Assembly that are considering bills to repeal [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday asserted that his government will not issue a pardon to Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks if he is convicted by a US military commission. Howard, appearing on ABC's Lateline program, addressed remarks by opposition Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd , who claims that Hicks would not be presumed [...]