Egypt officials announced Saturday that they will release from prison two leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood who were jailed in May for their involvement in pro-judicial independence protests . Essam el-Erian and Mohamed Mursi were previously arrested in 2005 for protesting a constitutional referendum aimed at implementing multi-party elections, which they felt impermissibly favored [...]

The federal government of Germany has scrapped a proposed nationwide ban on smoking in restaurants amidst concern that it would impermissibly intrude on police powers guaranteed to the states in the wake of landmark federalism reforms approved this summer. The government will instead ban smoking in federal buildings. The Interior and Justice ministries were unpersuaded [...]

An Abuja High Court ruled Friday that Nigeria's ruling political party violated the country's constitution by suspending Nigeria's Vice President from membership. The decision sustains the presidential hopes of Vice President Atiku Abubakar , who has announced his intention to run in Nigeria's 2007 presidential election . The Nigerian constitution requires all presidential candidates to [...]

Hundreds of people have lobbied Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office for the position of hangman for Saddam Hussein if he is actually executed, according to the New York Times Saturday. A top aide to Maliki has speculated that so many people were interested in executing the former Iraqi dictator because they wanted to exact [...]

Mexican ex-president Luis Echeverria was found unable to undergo a psychological examination Friday due to his deteriorating health, according to his lawyer. The former president, who held office from 1970 to 1976, has been charged with genocide and other crimes committed during his time in the Mexican government. Last week, Echeverria was placed under house [...]

The US Senate passed a bill by voice vote Friday that would make obtaining phone records through fraud or lying a criminal act. People found guilty of so-called "pretexting" would face fines and imprisonment for up to 10 years. Punishment may be doubled if the violation involves more than $100,000 or more than 50 victims. [...]

Investigation of Allegations Related to Improper Conduct Involving Members and Current or Former House Pages, US House Committee on Standard of Official Conduct, December 8, 2006 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Hadix v. Caruso, US District Court for the Western District of Michigan, December 8, 2006 . Read the full text of the injunction . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct concluded Friday that although Republican leaders did not break any ethics rules in addressing the misconduct of disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley , they nonetheless failed to protect young pages from inappropriate communications. Following an investigation , the panel found that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) most [...]

The number of journalists imprisoned for their writings increased for the second year in a row in 2006 and one-third of those jailed are Internet journalists or bloggers, according to a new worldwide report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) . The CPJ report notes that of the 134 journalists imprisoned around the world [...]