Bangladeshi property tycoon Ahmed Akbar Sobhan and his family were convicted in absentia by Bangladesh's anti-corruption commission of evading taxes amounting to $1.2 million and sentenced to five years in jail Sunday. Sobhan, chairman of property conglomerate Bashundara Group , left Bangladesh when the government listed him as one of the country's 50 most corrupt [...]

A US military judge postponed an Article 32 hearing on US Army sniper Sgt. Evan Vela Sunday, following a fellow Army sniper's acquittal on premeditated murder charges . Vela, who has argued that he was simply following orders to "bait" and kill suspected Iraqi insurgents with materials that could be used to aid the insurgency, [...]

Myanmar opposition leader and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi was briefly released from house arrest Sunday to met with visiting UN Special Envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari, but Gambari was not allowed to meet with top junta leaders Senior General Than Shwe or Deputy Senior General Maung Aye in his efforts to halt rising [...]

Pakistani riot police clashed with lawyers demonstrating outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Saturday, as hundreds protested a high court ruling allowing Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to run for another term as president while still serving as chief of the Pakistani army. A former vice-president of the Supreme [...]

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has criticized the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for its judgments on Serb suspects allegedly involved in the 1991 Vukovar massacre , saying in a letter sent Friday to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the ICTY failed to act in a "balanced and impartial way" and calling [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says that constitutional questions remaining after the Pakistan Supreme Court's recent ruling that President Pervez Musharraf may contest the upcoming Pakistan presidential election as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces are sufficiently significant to warrant a Supreme Court stay of the scheduled October 6 [...]

US Army Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval was sentenced Saturday to five months in prison for his role in covering up the shootings of three unarmed Iraqis. Sandoval was convicted Friday at his court-martial of planting evidence but was acquitted of premeditated murder . In addition to the prison sentence, Sandoval will receive a reduction in [...]

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against US Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and ruled that Murtha must provide a deposition in the case. US Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich , who is facing charges for his alleged role in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians, brought the defamation and invasion [...]

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda , the newly elected successor to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe , said Friday that he plans to submit a new anti-terrorism law to parliament that will allow Japan to continue to refuel allied ships in the Indian Ocean connected to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The original legislation authorizing [...]

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki Thursday refused to sign a bill that would have limited the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to only investigating crimes committed after 2003. The amendment, deleting portions of the 2003 Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act , would have made it impossible for the commission to continue investigations into some of the country's [...]