EU justice ministers agreed to a draft immigration and asylum proposal Tuesday during an informal meeting held ahead of the official Wednesday summit in Cannes, France. The draft policy is aimed at standardizing EU nations' approach to immigration and asylum, as set out in the work programme circulated by the French EU Presidency late last [...]

Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled 8-1 Tuesday that a June cabinet communique supporting the establishment of a World Heritage site on the countries' shared border was unconstitutional . In June, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama signed the Thai-Cambodian Joint Communique, indicating Thai support for the Cambodian bid to have the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple designated a [...]

A US group co-chaired by former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher released a report Tuesday calling for a new law requiring the president to consult with Congress before going to war. Called the National War Powers Commission , the group said the 1973 War Powers Resolution was intended to serve this purpose, [...]

A Moscow court Monday rejected an attempt by relatives of Polish victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre to renew investigations into the killings. The government of Mikhail Gorbachev admitted in 1990 that Josef Stalin had personally ordered the secret police to carry out the killings. Russia had previously blamed the Nazis for the incident, in [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report Tuesday calling on the Saudi government to institute new legal protections for the country's estimated 1.5 million domestic workers. The group said that migrant domestic workers have fewer protections than those in other occupations, and are specifically excluded from the country's 2005 Labor Law . HRW added that [...]

Former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra went on trial for corruption Tuesday in the Thai Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions . In March, Thaksin pleaded not guilty to the charges stemming from a 2003 land purchase his wife, Pojamarn, made from a government-directed institution despite a ban on officials making business [...]

The Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled Monday that sentences imposed on seven aboriginal protesters in March for opposing mining company operations on community land were too severe. In February, Robert Lovelace, a member of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN) , was sentenced to six months in jail for contempt after he refused to [...]

More than 3000 members of the People's Alliance for Democracy rallied outside of the Royal Thai Police Headquarters in Bangkok on Monday, calling for a speedy resolution to the corruption trials of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra .   According to a Bangkok Post report, the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) has also expressed impatience [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Monday granted the suspensive effect of the prosecutors' appeal against the release of Congolese ex-militia leader Thomas Lubanga . The granting of the appeal means that Lubanga will not be released until a final decision is made by the ICC. Late last month, the ICC imposed an indefinite stay on [...]

A new association of political prisoners formed by Russia's National Bolshevik Party (NBP) will advocate for prisoners' rights and call attention to the plight of political prisoners in the country, party spokesman Alexander Averin said Sunday. Averin also called on the Russian government to release 25 alleged political prisoners, but government officials denied that they [...]