A judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Friday sentenced a former US Department of Defense (DOD) official to almost five years in prison for disclosing national defense information to Chinese agents. Gregg William Bergersen, an analyst at the DOD's Defense Security Cooperation Agency , pleaded guilty to conspiracy for [...]

A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected a Bush administration appeal against a 2007 order requiring that White House visitor logs be released in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) . The court held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the appeal because the lower court had [...]

Members of the Pakistan lawyers' movement rallied Thursday against the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for failing to reinstate judges deposed after the declaration of emergency by President Pervez Musharraf in November 2007. Among the deposed judges are a number of justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan , including former [...]

Singapore's Ministry of Law Wednesday rejected claims by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) that the country lacks an independent judiciary and fails to meet international standards of human rights. In its response to the claims, the Ministry rejected the IBAHRI's call for the country to provide increased protections of the freedoms of [...]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert misappropriated approximately $100,000 by double-billing different sources for travel and hotel expenses, Israeli police said Friday after questioning the politician. Olmert's travel agency, Rishon Tours, would allegedly ask various state agencies and charities to pay Olmert's travel bills without telling them that other bodies were also being asked to pay [...]

The Thai Attorney General's Office filed new corruption charges against former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the country's Supreme Court Friday. The charges relate to a 2003 resolution that reduced fees paid by mobile phone companies to state telecommunications agencies. A company then owned by Thaksin's family saw the greatest benefit from the new [...]

Human rights groups and defense lawyers have criticized the refusal of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to interfere with US proceedings against Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr in light of documents released Thursday showing that the Canadian government knew Khadr had been mistreated . Harper spoke Friday of the severity of the criminal charges against [...]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced that next week it will rule on a Mexican petition asking to delay the executions of five Mexicans on death row in the US. Mexican authorities allege that US officials denied the five men the chance to speak with Mexican counselor officers in violation of the 1963 Vienna [...]

The European Parliament (EP) voted Thursday to adopt a resolution calling on member states to "review and repeal laws and policies that discriminate against the Roma on the basis of race and ethnicity." The EP resolution also calls on the European Commission and EU member states to enact legislation and policies to support Roma communities [...]

The Italian Chamber of Deputies , the country's lower house of parliament, approved legislation Thursday that would grant Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other high-ranking officials immunity from prosecution while in office. Berlusconi's government proposed the legislation, saying the officials needed to operate without fear of politically motivated prosecutions, but opponents have said the law [...]