The Constitutional Court of Turkey voted 11-0 Monday to hear a bid to disband the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) , days after a warning by the EU Enlargement Commissioner that an AKP ban could have serious ramifications for Turkey's bid to join the European Union . Earlier this month, Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear two cases involving the First Amendment Monday, including Pleasant Grove City v. Summum (07-665) , in which the Court will consider whether a private, religious group can donate a monument for display in a public park. Specifically, the Court must decide whether the situation implicates government speech [...]

Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Public Affairs Minister Chen Chimutengwende were confirmed ousted Monday as returns came in from Saturday's general elections in the country, but other election results continue to be delayed, according to media reports. Zimbabwe opposition parties renewed allegations that the government had rigged the local, senate, assembly and presidential elections, [...]

US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. unveiled a plan to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system and merge key federal administrative agencies in remarks at a press conference in Washington Monday. The executive summary of the Treasury's Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure described the initiative as presentinga series of "short-term" and "intermediate-term" [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that New Jersey and Delaware have "overlapping authority" to control "extraordinary" construction projects along the Delaware River. The Court's decision came in New Jersey v. Delaware , where the Court revisited the century-old water boundary dispute between the two states. New Jersey filed a lawsuit against Delaware in 2005 [...]

The draft constitution of Myanmar , slated to be put before the country's citizens in a May referendum, contains a provision reserving 25 percent of parliamentary seats for the military, and another provision that will effectively prevent pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from seeking the presidency or a seat in parliament due to her [...]

Ousted Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry , who was released from virtual house arrest last week on the orders of recently-elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani , returned to his hometown of Quetta on Monday for the first of a series of trips and speeches to build support for the reinstatement of superior court [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Christina Wells of the University of Missouri School of Law says that while the House version of a bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act forces the Bush administration to actually prove that disclosing surveillance information would endanger national security, the Senate version of the legislation insulates the administration from having to [...]

Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared in court Sunday, shortly after being released from hospital care for severe ear and eye conditions, to face charges that she received approximately $440,000 in illegal kickbacks on a power-plant deal while in office between 1996 and 2001. Her appearance before the court has been postponed numerous times [...]

British national Simon Mann , accused of participating in an alleged coup attempt against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in 2004, has accused Sir Mark Thatcher of being involved in the plot, Equatorial Guinea Attorney General Jose Olo said Sunday. According to Olo, Mann, whose trial is set to begin in May, made [...]