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 [...]

Former UK shadow Home Secretary David Davis , who resigned his parliamentary position in protest over an anti-terror bill in June, won a forced by-election Friday with almost 72% of the vote. In his acceptance speech , Davis promised to stand for civil liberties and oppose what he termed "draconian" security measures: Today, the people [...]

Arab activist Sami Al-Arian was granted bail Thursday by a judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia , but it is speculated that he might be detained by immigration officials upon release. The former University of South Florida (USF) computer science professor allegedly provided supported to terrorist organizations. Judge Leonie [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against leaders of the US intelligence community on Thursday, acting on behalf of rights groups and activists. Filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the action challenges the constitutionality of the newly-amended Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) . President George [...]

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled . Thursday that Virginia's method of execution by lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett had challenged the procedure, arguing that there is an unacceptable risk that the drugs used in the lethal [...]

The US and coalition forces have released more than 9,000 detainees in Iraq already this year, more than were released in all of 2007, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) . The MNF-I reported that 9,047 detainees had been released in the year to date, while 8,956 were released in [...]

Former White House advisor Karl Rove Wednesday refused to testify before a scheduled Thursday hearing of the US House Judiciary Committee in defiance of a subpoena. In May, the committee subpoenaed Rove to testify concerning any involvement in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman on federal corruption charges in 2005. Rove Wednesday sent [...]