National Reconciliation Ordinance, Pervez Musharraf, October 5, 2007 . Read the full text of the ordinance. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US President George W. Bush Friday defended his administration's interrogation policy, saying that the "government does not torture people" and that it "stick to US law and our international obligations." Bush was responding to Congressional demands for two 2005 Department of Justice opinion letters that reportedly endorsed harsh interrogation tactics. Bush said: I have put [...]

Spanish police arrested over 20 senior members of the Batasuna party Thursday on orders from anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon. The reasons for their arrests have not been released, but many believe the arrests were politically motivated. The Batasuna party is alleged to be a front for the illegal Basque separatist militant group ETA , which [...]

Iraqi judge Rahdi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of Iraq's Commission for Public Integrity (CPI) , has accused Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government of protecting corrupt employees and of actively attempting to "eradicate or control the Commission." During a US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Thursday hearing to assess the state of [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled Friday that a controversial presidential election slated for October 6 in the National Assembly of Pakistan and provincial assemblies may proceed, but barred the Election Commission of Pakistan from officially declaring a winner until the high court issues a ruling on whether President Pervez Musharraf was an eligible presidential [...]

The UK Department of Education and Skills issued updated school uniform guidelines Thursday that allow school heads to ban Muslim veils but stopped short of imposing a government ban on religious dress that covers students' faces. A draft version of the guidelines , published in March, proposed allowing schools to ban some religious dress to [...]

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf signed a "reconciliation ordinance" Friday, granting amnesty to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on corruption charges. The agreement reached between the two political rivals clears the way Bhutto to return to Pakistan from self-exile in London and Dubai to campaign in parliamentary elections for prime minister later this year. The [...]

The investigating officer who headed the Article 32 hearing for US Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich has recommended that Wuterich not face unpremeditated murder charges but instead be tried for negligent homicide, defense lawyers said Thursday. Wuterich, the former squad leader implicated in the killing and suspected cover-up of the death of 24 Iraqi civilians [...]

Senate confirmation hearings for US Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey could begin as early as October 17, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Thursday. Leahy on Tuesday listed what he described as topics of "concern" to be addressed in the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings in a letter to Mukasey. Leahy encouraged Mukasey [...]

A federal jury awarded six recording companies $222,000 Thursday in Virgin v. Thomas , the first music file-sharing lawsuit to go to trial, ordering Jammie Thomas to pay for sharing 24 copyrighted songs on the Internet. The recording companies, including Sony BMG, Arista Records, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings, Capitol Records and Warner Bros. Records , [...]