The US House of Representatives passed the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 Tuesday, a bill creating new criminal provisions to govern fraud conducted by private defense contractors against the US government. The measure, passed by a vote of 375-3 , "amends the federal criminal code to prohibit profiteering and fraud involving a contract or [...]

Democrats in the US House of Representatives introduced a draft bill Tuesday designed to "modernize" the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) . The so-called RESTORE Act of 2007 ("Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed and Effective Act of 2007") would increase court oversight of the Terrorist Surveillance Program run by the National Security [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on Tuesday urged Afghanistan to reinstate a moratorium on executions . Afghanistan executed 15 prisoners by firing squad Sunday and Arbour said that "the circumstances of the executions may constitute a breach of Afghanistan's obligations under international law." Arbour's comments follow a statement issued by the top [...]

Aram Suren Hamparian : "The adoption of the Armenian genocide resolution would represent a meaningful step toward reclaiming our right – as Americans – to speak openly and honestly about the first genocide of the 20th Century, free from the gag-rule that Turkey has, for far too long, imposed on the discussion of this human [...]

US District Judge Gladys Kessler of the DC District Court has directly intervened to block the transfer of a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Tunisia, where he faced the threat of torture. In her decision last week, which was not made public until Tuesday, Kessler granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Defense Department from transferring Mohammed [...]

The corruption and violence permeating the Nigerian government have reached crisis levels, according to a report issued Tuesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) . Comparing the behavior of the Nigerian government to a criminal organization, the HRW report said that politicians use hired thugs to intimidate voters and critics, often staying in office for years [...]

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) Tuesday sentenced two former leaders of Sierra Leone's Civil Defense Forces (CDF) – Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa – to six and eight years imprisonment, respectively. The sentences will run from the date they were initially imprisoned in 2003. Fofana and Kondewa were convicted last month of "murder, [...]

Pennsylvania's death penalty system is so flawed that it has denied defendants of due process and could result in wrongful executions, the American Bar Association death penalty assessment team said Tuesday. The team's report identified several problems with the Pennsylvania system, including a failure to ensure competent legal representation for the accused, racial and geographical [...]

Party allies of opposition leader and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi Tuesday renewed calls for unconditional talks between Suu Kyi and junta leader Senior General Than Shwe . Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) urged the military government to drop its condition that Suu Kyi abandon support for international sanctions against [...]

The Rhode Island Supreme Court Tuesday heard arguments in a case on whether a lesbian couple legally married in Massachusetts has the right to divorce in Rhode Island. In Chambers v. Ormiston , Rhode Island residents Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers are seeking to end their 2004 Massachusetts marriage. Lawyers for the couple argued Tuesday [...]