US District Court Judge Robin Cauthron Friday struck down a two year-old amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that prevented Oklahoma from recognizing adoptions by gay parents that were finalized in other US or foreign jurisdictions. Cauthron found that the amendment violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Fourth Amendment, and prohibits the state [...]

Leaders of right-wing anti-government paramilitaries in Colombia said Friday that Thursday's decision by the country's Constitutional Court throwing out a part of last year’s controversial Justice and Peace Law giving lesser punishments to paramilitary leaders who voluntarily disarm would disrupt the peace process in the country. The legislation, formally known as Law 975, had specified [...]

The White House Friday responded to a report by the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) calling on the US to shut down its Guantanamo Bay detention facility by reinterating President Bush's statement that he hopes to close it at some point, and insisting that "everything that is done in terms of questioning detainees is fully [...]

Police in Zimbabwe arrested opposition leader Arthur Mutambara and 70 supporters on Friday for allegedly campaigning for a Saturday byelection in violation of Zimbabwe’s Public Order and Security Act , which makes it illegal to hold a political meeting of any size without written approval from police four days in advance of a political event. [...]

Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture: United States of America, UN Committee Against Torture, May 18, 2006 . Excerpt: The State party should cease to detain any person at Guantanamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to judicial process or release them as soon as possible, ensuring that [...]

The French National Assembly has postponed until at least October debate on a controversial bill sponsored by the opposition Socialist Party that would make it a crime to deny that the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in Turkey was genocide. French Socialists had pushed for a bill that would impose fines similar to the €45,000 [...]

Somali MPs on Friday asked Prime Minister Ali Gedi to expel several warlords from the Somali cabinet after 150 people were killed in Mogadishu last week during fighting between Islamic factions and the warlord militias. The MPs say the warlords, including the Ministers of the Departments of Security, Commerce, Religious Affairs, and Militia Disarmament, broke [...]

US v. Milberg Weiss et al., US District Court for the Central District of California, May 18, 2006 . Read the full text of the indictment . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Senate on Thursday passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 , which would increase the maximum FCC indecency fines per station by a multiple of ten, from $32,500 to $325,000 per violation. The bill was discharged by unanimous consent from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation , and was unanimously [...]

Khaled el-Masri v. George Tenet, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge T.S. Ellis III, May 18, 2006 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.