A Russian court ruled against former chess champion and liberal United Civil Front leader Garry Kasparov Monday, denying Kasparov's appeal and ordering him to serve a five day jail sentence for organizing an unsanctioned protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin and resisting arrest. Kasparov says he complied with police and maintains that his arrest was [...]

Human rights groups Amnesty International and JUSTICE Monday argued against the UK government's proposal to extend the pre-charge detention period of suspected terrorists from 28 days to 56 days, saying separately that the extended detention is neither merited by the circumstances nor in keeping with the principals of liberal democracy. Amnesty issued "Ten good reasons [...]

Croatian lawmaker Branimir Glavas , charged with committing war crimes against Serbs during the 1991 Serbo-Croatian war , was re-elected to the Croatian parliament in Sunday's legislative elections, according to election results released Monday. Glavas was indicted in April along with six others on charges of war crimes committed in Osijek, including abduction, torture and [...]

Some 8,000 Kenyans have been killed over the last five years as a result of a police crackdown on the outlawed Mungiki sect, according to the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic-Kenya (OFFLACK) . In a report issued over the weekend, OFFLACK said: The Oscar Foundation has documented eight thousand and forty (8,040) cases of [...]

Iraqi Kurdish and Shiite lawmakers on Monday criticized the delay in the executions of Ali Hassan al-Majid , better known in Western media as "Chemical Ali," and two others, all of whom are currently being held by the US military until a legal debate on the executions is resolved . Several legal and procedural requirements [...]

The Philippine House of Representatives Monday defeated an impeachment bid against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged bribery, graft, corruption, and human rights abuses. The impeachment petition, filed by opposition lawmakers earlier this month, needed approval of one-third of the House before the Philippines Senate could initiate a trial. However, 184 out of 240 lawmakers [...]

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday urged the government of Pakistan to return to the rule of law and restore democracy in the country, now under emergency rule . At a press conference a day after his return from a seven-year exile in Saudi Arabia, Sharif also called for the restoration of the [...]

The Bangladesh Supreme Court Monday ordered a stay of the bail granted to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed , who has been charged by Bangladesh's anti-corruption commission with corruption, and most recently, bribery . A lower court had granted Hasina bail on November 4 while also staying the case proceedings; the appeals court affirmed [...]

Munir Malik , a former president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) who was taken into custody by police in the wake of President Pervez Musharraf's November 3 declaration of emergency , was reported to be in critical condition in hospital Monday after his detention order was lifted. On Sunday Malik was transferred from [...]

Xiao Yang , chief justice of China's Supreme People's Court has said that court reforms over the last 10 years have achieved judicial efficiency and improved the quality of trials and rulings in China, the China Daily reported Monday. Xiao noted that judicial committees, the highest decision-making bodies at each level of the Chinese judicial [...]