The Harare High Court on Saturday postponed a hearing on a lawsuit seeking to compel the country's Electoral Commission to release the results of last Saturday's elections after lawyers for Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were barred from entering the court. Armed police blocked the entrance to the court and forced journalists [...]

The Constitutional Court of Chile on Friday blocked a government-sponsored program that distributed emergency contraceptives to women as young as 14 free of charge. The program , approved by the Supreme Court in February, was introduced by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet , who called it essential to creating equality among Chilean women. It was immediately [...]

Eva Herzer : "The United Nations Charter, Covenants and Declarations set forth the internationally agreed upon standards of human ethics and decency necessary to protect the integrity and dignity of individuals and peoples. The current massive uprising of the Tibetan people is a textbook example of what happens when the politically powerful defy these standards. [...]

The Nigerian Federal High Court on Friday formally charged rebel Henry Okah with treason based on an alleged coup plot. Okah, a member of the militant Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) , was arrested and charged in Angola in September after attempting to buy weapons and explosives. Friday's closed court hearing was [...]

A military tribunal in Suriname ruled Friday that all suspects involved in a 1982 massacre in Paramaribo must stand trial, including former military dictator Desi Bouterse . Led by Bouterse, the armed forces seized power in 1982 and then executed 15 prominent citizens accused of plotting against the government. The Suriname military tribunal rejected an [...]

The US military has charged a civilian contractor working with the military in Iraq with aggravated assault, marking the first time the military has charged a civilian since a 2006 amendment to Article II of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) granting the military jurisdiction over civilians accompanying US troops in a combat zone. [...]

The US Department of Justice on Friday sued Fox Broadcasting Company to collect unpaid fines issued for the broadcast of the controversial 2003 reality show "Married by America." Amending an earlier order, the Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau issued a Forfeiture Order in late February ordering the the licensees of the 13 stations against whom [...]

A former Argentinean army officer and two adoptive parents were convicted Friday of kidnapping and falsifying the identity of Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragan, a woman who was kidnapped during the 1976-1983 "Dirty War" . The court sentenced Sampallo Barragan's adoptive parents to eight years in prison, and the army officer to ten years. Sampallo Barragan [...]

Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan on Friday asked a military tribunal to bar the use of statements made by Hamdan that were allegedly obtained through the use of torture and requested that the court declare that Hamdan has been subjected to abusive interrogation techniques. Hamdan contends that he was subjected to prolonged [...]

The Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld the dismissal of a wrongful death suit brought by Herbert Freeman, Jr. against the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans and public officials. Freeman's 91-year-old wheelchair-bound mother, Ethel Mayo Freeman, died September 1, 2005 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center where she and [...]