Two high-ranking Kurdish politicians were each sentenced to a year and a half in prison Monday by a Turkish court for distributing Kurdish-language party materials praising imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan . Ahmet Turk and Aysel Tugluk, president and vice-president of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) , received one year sentences for distributing [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Scott v. Harris , 05-1631 , where the court must decide whether a police officer violated a fleeing suspect's constitutional rights by using deadly force when he bumped his police car into the suspect's car to end a high speed chase. Victor Harris was pursued by [...]

Bosnian BiH presidency member Haris Silajdzic on Monday called for an amendment to the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) constitution that would end the country's division into ethnic mini-states and create a unified nation. Silajdzic's proposal was a reaction to Monday's International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro . [...]

US District Judge Benson Legg Monday suspended a requirement that the Maryland Attorney General submit proposals for using medical professionals to conduct lethal injections until such time as the controversy over the status of the state's capital punishment is resolved. Maryland death row inmate Vernon Evans, Jr. had initially challenged the constitutionality of lethal injections, [...]

Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Monday filed an appeal of his four-year prison sentence on charges of inciting sedition, insulting Islam, harming national unity and insulting the president in remarks he posted on his Internet blog that attacked conservative Muslims. A court in Alexandria handed down the sentence Thursday for statements that criticized Islamic authorities, [...]

Gonzalo Vargas Llosa : "I think that there are three important points to underline . First of all, the enormity of the problem of displacement of Iraqis: today, close to two million uprooted within Iraq itself, with little or no resources of their own left, and at the same time, major security problems faced by [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Monday in four cases . The two consolidated cases, Washington State Grange v. Washington Republican Party (06-713) and State of Washington v. Washington Republican Party (06-730) on appeal from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit consider whether the Democratic and Republican parties of Washington state can [...]

Iraq's cabinet approved a draft oil law Monday outlining the development and distribution of Iraqi oil and giving the national government control over oil revenues, according to a senior Iraqi oil official. The proposed law now moves to the Iraqi National Assembly for revisions and ratification. Iraqi legislators delivered the draft law to Iraq's cabinet [...]

US District Judge Reggie B. Walton dismissed a juror Monday morning in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby after questioning the jury over possible exposure to information about the trial over the weekend. Although Walton had ordered jurors to avoid contact with media coverage about the CIA leak case , the judge said [...]

Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), International Court of Justice, February 26, 2006 . Read the full text and summary of the judgment. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.