The number of executions worldwide dropped in 2006 from 2,148 the year previous to 1,591, according to new statistics issued by Amnesty International. Over 90 percent of the year's executions were conducted in six countries: Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, the USA and China. At 177, Iran's execution rate nearly doubled in 2006. Iraq and Pakistan [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in five cases Monday, including Microsoft v. AT&T , where the Court held that Microsoft was not liable for patent infringement under 35 USC 271(f) for foreign installations of Windows. AT&T filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft because Microsoft provides foreign manufacturers copies of its Windows operating [...]

International judges appointed to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) said Monday that the Khmer Rouge genocide trials can move forward after the Cambodian Bar Association (BAKC) agreed to dramatically reduce the fees it proposed to levy on foreign lawyers involved in the trials. The UN-nominated judges boycotted a procedural session of [...]

Former CIA director George Tenet repeatedly denied that torture has been used during interrogations of terror suspects in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes that aired Sunday. Tenet said that no one has ever died as a result of interrogation sessions and responded that he does not "talk about techniques" when asked if waterboarding was [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser says that the trial of Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks before a US military commission has demonstrated the disturbing willingness of two allegedly democratic governments to abandon the rule of law for an expedient and evil purpose… President Bush established Guantanamo Bay to enable [...]

China is not doing enough to remedy human rights abuses prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, according to a report released by Amnesty International Monday. The group criticized China for the use of increased restrictions on domestic media and the Internet and for continuing to allow criminal suspects to be jailed for up to [...]

Ali Khan : "A revolution is brewing in Turkey. Turkish generals do not believe that Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is sufficiently secular to become the next President of the Turkish Republic. The un-amendable provisions of the national Constitution require that Turkey forever remain secular. Impassioned secular crowds are chanting that Cankaya (the presidential palace) is [...]

As some 700,000 secularist Turks took to the streets of Istanbul Sunday demanding the resignation of Turkey's government, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul , a member of the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the country's sole presidential candidate, said he would not withdraw from the country's presidential election in the face of [...]

German lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck says that he will refile a war crimes complaint against former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Spain with the help of Spanish counterparts after the German Federal Prosecutor's office Friday rejected a bid to prosecute the suit in Germany under that country's universal jurisdiction law , according to a [...]

China's government continued its campaign against corrupt public officials Sunday by unveiling a set of new rules aimed at ensuring the integrity of public servants. The proposed 55-article regulation will take effect on June 1. The articles authorize reprimanding, demoting, and firing public officials who commit a variety of offenses, including failing to perform the [...]