US Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann , chief judge of US military commissions , said Tuesday at a pretrial hearing for five suspects in the September 11 attacks that he is scheduled to retire next April. During voir dire, in which defense attorneys questioned Kohlmann about potential bias, the judge said he had submitted retirement paperwork [...]

Serbia submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly Tuesday seeking an International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the legality of the unilaterally-proclaimed independence of Kosovo . The draft resolution was presented following an address to the General Assembly by Serbian President Boris Tadic . The draft resolution and Tadic's address follow [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced that it would not post criminal prosecutors at the polls for the November 4 presidential election, responding to concerns raised by civil rights groups. The decision represents a departure from the DOJ's longstanding practice. Grace Chung Becker , assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Civil Rights [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) will amend proposed investigation guidelines to comport with the concerns of Congress and civil liberties groups, according to testimony by Assistant Attorney General Elisebeth Cook given Tuesday before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence . The proposed rules, referred to as the Attorney General Guidelines, are intended to [...]

An en-banc panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Monday clarified the test to be used to determine whether a design patent has been infringed. The issue came before the court in a dispute over an alleged infringement of US Design Patent No. 467,389 , a design for a four-sided [...]

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the execution of Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis "pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari." Davis had been scheduled to be executed at 7 PM EDT on Tuesday. According to his lawyers, key witnesses who claimed they saw Davis kill an off-duty [...]

Agnieszka Bienczyk-Missala : "In August 2008 the Public Prosecutor's Office in Poland started an investigation on the existence of secret CIA detention facilities in Poland. It happened three years after the revealing information published by the Washington Post and Human Rights Watch. So far, all consecutive Polish governments have neglected the issue, denying the CIA [...]

Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP) chair Leila de Lima said Tuesday that torture is prevalent in the country's prison system and that her organization has documented over 300 cases of abuse in the past three years. De Lima said that in an effort to end the mistreatment, her office has tried to [...]

Myanmar state media outlets announced Tuesday that the state's ruling junta released 9,002 prisoners for good behavior, including U Win Tin , a founder of Myanmar opposition group the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the state's longest-incarcerated political prisoner. Officials for the state newspaper New Light of Myanmar wrote: The government terminated the prison [...]

Corlett Letlojane : "First and foremost, many people are saddened by the unceremonious departure of the President of South Africa, when his term of office is only ending in April 2008. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who chairs the group known as The Elders, is an elder statesman playing a major role in reconciliation, a leading [...]