Indonesia has threatened legal action against US mining company Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold if it does not improve environmental conditions near its gold mine in Papua. For the past few days, protestors have called for the government to take action against the mine in order to control the production of waste ore called tailings that [...]

An Ethiopian court dropped charges Wednesday against 18 people, including five American journalists, as the treason trial for 129 protestors resumed. The charges against the 18 included treason, attempted genocide, and other crimes in connection with allegations that they attempted to overthrow the government. The five journalists work for the US government-run Voice of America [...]

The state of Nevada filed a lawsuit against the federal government Wednesday, seeking documents related to the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump , including documents which allegedly contain information that the proposed site cannot meet radiation safety standards mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) . The Nevada Attorney General is seeking access to [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland has called on Sudan to accept the presence of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur as essential to protecting Sudan's citizens. Egeland said that the AU, while effective in the short-term, was incapable of meeting the long-term demands that Darfur calls for and that [...]

Afghanistan Supreme Court Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada said Thursday that Afghan courts will not bow to outside pressure in the case of Abdul Rahman , who has been jailed for converting to Christianity and who could face the death penalty under Islamic sharia law if convicted of apostasy. Mawlavizada said that the "judiciary will act independently [...]

The UK Terrorism Bill is set to become law after the House of Lords Wednesday backed down on its objection to a controversial provision criminalizing the "glorification" of terrorism. The legislation, introduced in the wake of the July 7 London bombings , had gone back and forth between the two chambers six times, with the [...]

US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program "without congressional intervention or judicial intervention is just plain wrong." In an interview with the Associated Press, Specter said he was not hopeful the White House would listen to members of Congress who want [...]

The UN Commission on Human Rights was formally abolished Wednesday by a resolution of the UN Economic and Social Council adopted without a formal vote. The resolution calls for the completion of the commission's currently-suspended sixty-second session and the final shutdown of the organization on June 16, when it will be replaced by the new [...]

R v. Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School, UK House of Lords, March 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Georgia v. Randolph, Supreme Court of the United States, March 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.