The North Carolina Medical Board does not have the authority to discipline doctors that participate in state death penalty procedures, a state judge ruled Friday. Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens held that state requirements that a physician be in attendance during the lethal injection execution of condemned inmates trump a medical board policy [...]

Taiwanese prosecutors Friday indicted Vice President Annette Lu and two other leading members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on charges of corruption and forgery. Lu, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun, and former foreign minister Chen Tan-sun are accused of using their positions as public servants to claim special expenses with false receipts. The anti-corruption [...]

The Dutch government will not hold a general referendum on the proposed EU Reform Treaty , Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Friday. Balkenende said the referendum was unnecessary because the new EU treaty had "no constitutional aspirations." The Dutch Parliament could propose a treaty referendum itself although anti-referendum parties have a majority of seats. [...]

Federal investigators are probing allegations of fraud and corruption related to $6 billion in military contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Pentagon official testifying before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday. At the hearing , Principal Deputy Inspector General at the Department of Defense Thomas Gimble testified that his office is currently conducting [...]

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund Thursday filed a lawsuit against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on behalf of several families who say that ICE agents violently raided their homes without first obtaining court warrants. The suit alleges that the raids, part of a program called Operation Return to Sender , [...]

The South African Supreme Court of Appeal heard arguments Friday in the corruption case against former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma . The South African Prosecuting Authority (NPA) alleges that Zuma received bribes from arms manufacturer Thint, a subsidiary of the France-based Thales Group . Lawyers for Zuma argued Friday that the Durban High [...]

The Supreme Court of Chile ruled Friday that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori should be extradited to Peru to face human rights charges. The much anticipated decision was expected earlier this month, but suffered delays due to the health of one Supreme Court justice. Fujimori is accused of approving death squad killings and misusing government [...]

Charges and provisional detention order against Nuon Chea, Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, September 21, 2007. Read the full text of the charges and order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea has disputed charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to his detention order , published Friday by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) . Chea, who was arrested and charged earlier this week, said that he was never in the position to order the [...]

Bangladesh suspended publication of weekly satire magazine Alpin Friday after hundreds of Bangladeshi Muslims protested the publication of a cartoon depicting a young boy and his "Muhammad cat," saying the cartoon ridiculed the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Protesters burned copies of Prothom Alo , the daily newspaper that publishes the Alpin magazine, and demanded that the [...]