The Taiwanese Central Election Commission said Friday that it has approved two separate referendums on whether to proceed with a proposed bid for United Nations (UN) membership. The referendums, first announced in June by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian , will coincide with Taiwan's presidential elections scheduled for March 22. Chen's Democratic Progressive Party put forth [...]

The US District Court for the District of Oregon ruled Friday that Oregon's domestic partnership law should be allowed to take effect, saying that opponents of the law failed to gather the necessary signatures to place the law on the ballot for public referendum next November. Judge Michael Mosman suspended the law in December pending [...]

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reached a settlement with two immigrants who said they were forcibly drugged with sedatives during deportation proceedings, CNN reported Friday. As part of the agreement, Raymond Soeoth, a minister from Indonesia, will receive $5,000 and will be allowed to stay in the US for at least two more [...]

A New York state appeals court on Friday unanimously ruled that the state must legally recognize valid out-of-state same-sex marriages . Patricia Martinez filed the lawsuit in Rochester, NY against her employer Monroe Community College (MCC) after it denied her request to extend health benefits to her spouse Lisa Golden. The couple was married in [...]

Mohammed Jawad Charge Sheet, US Department of Defense, January 31, 2008 . Read the full text of the charges . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Friday called for Saudi Arabia to abolish laws that give men complete guardianship over women. Under current Saudi law, women have few or no rights as regards marriage, divorce, child custody, and property ownership. The committee also urged Saudi Arabia to outlaw polygamy, which it [...]

Suspended South Africa police commissioner and former INTERPOL president Jackie Selebi was provisionally charged Friday in a South African regional court with three counts of corruption and one count of defeating the ends of justice. A spokesperson for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told BBC News that the charges did not amount to a [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Friday that it will not reconsider its July 2007 decision that federal appeals courts reviewing the "enemy combatant" designation of Guantanamo Bay detainees must review all evidence regarding that detainee. In the July decision, the appeals court rejected the government's argument that the [...]

The Constitutional Court of Romania Thursday ruled that parts of the law creating the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS) are unconstitutional. Head of the Supreme Council of Magistrates Linda Barbulescu said that the court's ruling effectively strikes down all previous findings by the CNSAS, the agency charged with investigating the archives [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that Turkey violated the human rights of two men when police subjected them to inhuman and degrading treatment and then failed to properly investigate their allegations of abuse. In Donmus and Kaplan v. Turkey , two plaintiffs said they were physically tortured while in police custody [...]