Venezuelans went to the polls on Sunday to vote on a controversial set of constitutional reforms proposed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez . The two-part referendum will determine the fate of 69 proposed constitutional amendments that would extend the presidential term from six to seven years, eliminate the limit on the number of terms a [...]
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US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said at the end of a visit to Baghdad Sunday that the US will hold Ali Hassan al-Majid , better known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali", and two other former members of Hussein's former regime condemned to death by an Iraqi tribunal until Iraqi leaders have [...]
US Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte said Sunday at a news conference in Baghdad that Iraqi lawmakers must take advantage of what he called the "significant results" of the recent security surge and enact laws aimed at political reconciliation. Negroponte, who was US ambassador to Iraq from June 2004 to April 2005, spoke [...]
The Egyptian government has released two Shiite activists held in Egyptian custody since October who repeatedly criticized the systematic torture of prisoners in Egyptian custody. Mohammed al-Dereini and Ahmed Sobh are charged with “promoting extreme Shi’ite beliefs with the intent of causing contempt of the Islamic religion” and with “spreading false rumors and inciting propaganda [...]
The Bush administration is invoking a secrecy defense known as Glomarization to avoid disclosing hundreds of documents concerning White House visits by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff , according to AP citing court papers filed Friday. The administration is relying on a 1976 US Supreme Court ruling in Phillippi v. CIA, a case which arose in [...]
Protective Order #003, Protection of Identity of Witnesses, US v. Omar Ahmed Khadr, Judge Peter E. Brownback, US Military Commission, October 15, 2007 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Two major Pakistani lawyers' groups are pressing efforts to encourage a boycott of the country's January 8 general elections, Pakistan's Post daily reported Saturday. Joining ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry's call for opposition political parties to boycott the elections , the Supreme Court Bar Association (SBCA) and the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) [...]
Linda Lay, widow of former Enron chairman Ken Lay , formally rejected a US government claim to his assets in court papers filed Friday. In an answer to the government's civil suit against the Enron founder's estate, Linda Lay maintained her husband did not commit any crimes and that none of the $12.7 million the [...]
President Bush urged Congress in his weekly radio address Saturday to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in time to replace the temporary Protect America Act , set to expire February 1. That Act currently allows the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of [...]
The Pakistani government offered to reinstate all superior court judges sacked under emergency rule except for ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry but the deposed judges rejected the proposal, according to a report in the Pakistani Nation daily Saturday. The Nation said Peshawar High Court Bar Association President Abdul Latif Afridi revealed the failed compromise [...]
