A panel convened last week by Pakistan's coalition government has completed a draft parliamentary resolution to reinstate judges ousted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last year, Pakistani Law Minister Farooq Naek said late Wednesday. The resolution now goes to the top leadership of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for approval [...]

A Bangladeshi court Wednesday formally charged former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed with corruption under the recommendation of the country's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) . Hasina and eight other people are accused of involvement in an kickback scheme that awarded lucrative gas contracts to Canadian oil company Niko Resources Ltd . The charges came a [...]

The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the plea agreement made by BP following a 2005 explosion at a Texas City refinery must be sent back to the US district court in Houston for reconsideration. The accident killed 15 and injured 180, but secret negotiations for a plea agreement were conducted without [...]

The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that the Islamic talaq , a controversial practice under which a husband can divorce his wife without her say, violates the state constitution and therefore does not constitute a valid form of divorce in Maryland. The Court held Tuesday that talaq was against Maryland constitutional provisions granting equal [...]

One of the bombers involved in a series of suicide attacks in Mosul, Iraq, in April was a former detainee held at Guantanamo Bay , the US military said Wednesday. Kuwaiti Abdullah Salim Ali al-Ajmi was detained in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantanamo for three years; he was released to Kuwait in 2005. Kuwaiti [...]

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that governments and universities may not provide health benefits for same-sex partners of their employees. The 5-2 ruling interpreted a 2004 state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to mean that same-sex couples are to be denied any of the benefits of marriage as well. The suit involved 21 families [...]

The US military has reduced the sentence of Marine Corps Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III handed down after following his conviction last August for killing an Iraqi civilian, AP reported Thursday. Hutchins' attorney said he learned Tuesday that Hutchins will now serve only 11 years in detention at Fort Leavenworth and will have his rank [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says in this excerpt from her recent testimony to the US House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties that not only the high officials of the US government, but also the lawyers who advised them, should be investigated and [...]

Incoming Russian President Dmitry Medvedev , a lawyer who won Russia's presidency in March elections, stressed the importance of rights and freedoms at the outset of his inauguration address in the Kremlin Wednesday as he took over from outgoing President Vladimir Putin. Medvedev, a lawyer, said:I have just sworn the presidential oath, the oath taken [...]

European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering Wednesday faulted the ruling junta of Myanmar for saying it would go ahead with a scheduled May 10 referendum on a draft constitution in the aftermath of a devastating weekend cyclone that may have left up to 100,000 people dead . In a statement , Poettering said: We all are [...]