Indonesian authorities have arrested an alleged member of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in connection with the 2005 Bali bombings that killed 20 people and injured over a hundred, a police spokesman told AFP Monday. Faiz Fauzan is accused of helping to plan a second suicide bombing on the island and is [...]

A Texas court Monday set the execution date for Mexican national and Texas prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin for August 5, after the US Supreme Court ruled in March that President George W. Bush did not have the authority to direct state courts to comply with a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) granting [...]

A scheduled May 10 referendum on a draft constitution proposed by Myanmar's ruling junta will proceed as planned despite a devastating weekend storm that left an estimated 4000 people dead and thousands more homeless, state media reported Monday. The New Light of Myanmar also reported Monday that the country's ruling junta had "expressed surprise" at [...]

The Malaysian High Court Monday accepted a challenge by Malay-Roman Catholic Herald newspaper to a government ban on using the word "Allah" as a synonym for "God," rejecting the government's argument that the lawsuit by the Kuala Lumpur-based weekly was without merit. The Malaysian government imposed the ban in January after saying last year that [...]

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Sunday abandoned a proposal to legally recognize same-sex civil union ceremonies after the Australian federal government threatened to veto Civil Partnerships Bill 2006 if it passed the ACT Legislative Assembly . ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell said that the self-governing territory will now move to legalize civil partnerships without ceremony [...]

One or more suspected pipe bombs exploded early Sunday morning outside the federal courthouse in San Diego, California. No warning was given of the blast but no one was hurt. The front entrance of the Edward J. Schwartz US Courthouse was damaged. No arrests have been made in connection with the explosion but an investigation [...]

Bolivians in the state of Santa Cruz participated in a regional referendum Sunday on greater autonomy from the Bolivian national government despite opposition from Bolivian President Evo Morales , who characterized the referendum as illegal and unconstitutional. The poll was backed by Santa Cruz leaders as a way for the state to protect its natural [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Abigail Salisbury says that the recent war crimes acquittal of former Kosovo prime minister and Kosovo Liberation Army leader Ramush Haradinaj before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia – a ruling now under prosecution appeal – may compound existing tensions in the Balkans and provide a platform for his [...]

Thousands of activists protested in Japan on Sunday in opposition to efforts to amend the country's pacifist constitution . Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, drafted during the American occupation of Japan after World War II, states: Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as [...]

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force Saturday, one month after Ecuador became the 20th country to ratify the treaty . The landmark UN disability rights treaty protects the 650 million persons living with disabilities worldwide and holds that all disabled people should be treated as full-fledged citizens [...]