An official of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said late Saturday that turnout in the country's referendum on the draft Iraqi constitution was "no less than 61%", and that more than 66% of voters cast ballots in 7 of Iraq's 18 provinces, including three Sunni-dominated provinces deemed critical to the outcome of the poll. From Baghdad, [...]

Former president of Ecuador Lucio Gutierrez was arrested Friday evening upon his return to the Pacific coast city of Manta. Gutierrez, 48, was arrested on an order that he posed a threat to national security; he was taken to a prison in the capital, Quito. Gutierrez calmly complied with Ecuador police who boarded his plane [...]

A top UN expert has accused coalition forces in Iraq of purposefully denying food and water to civilians as a means of driving out insurgent strongholds. Jean Ziegler , UN special rapporteur on food rights, told reporters Friday that US and British soldiers have turned away aid convoys from occupied cities, including Fallujah, depriving Iraqi [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a temporary stay late Friday blocking a lower federal court order allowing prison officials in Missouri to transport a pregnant inmate to a medical facility for an abortion. A Missouri law prohibits the use of public funds "for the purpose of performing or assisting an abortion not necessary [...]

White House Deputy Chief of Staff and top advisor Karl Rove testified for a fourth and final time Friday before a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame to the media in 2003. Rove emerged from the courthouse without comment, but sources close to the investigation indicate that [...]

Polls closed in Iraq at 5PM local time (10 AM ET) Saturday after a day of voting in the country's constitutional referendum marked by relatively little violence and a higher Sunni turnout than was seen in January's parliamentary elections. Insurgents attacked several of the more than 6100 heavily-guarded polling stations causing some casualities, but nowhere [...]

The White House announced Friday that it will bring in former Texas Supreme Court justices to highlight the qualifications of Texas native and US Supreme Court associate justice nominee Harriet Miers . President Bush will host an event Monday with former Texas Chief Justices John Hill and Thomas Phillips, who co-authored a letter to the [...]

Iraqis prepared to go the polls Saturday to cast ballots in a critical referendum on a draft constitution the terms of which were only finalized earlier this week at the end of a high-pressure, high-stakes negotiating process urged on by the United States, too late to be reflected in millions of print copies distributed around [...]

Protection Gap: Strenghthening Canada's Compliance With Its International Human Rights Obligations, Amnesty International Canada's Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, October 14, 2005 . Read the full text of the report.Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. ALSO ON JURIST  Topic: Canada

A lawyer for detainees at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay currently on hunger strike argued Friday before US District Judge Gladys Kessler that prisoner attorneys needed more frequent access to their clients. Julia Tarver, representing four Saudis detainees, said that the present rule allowing monthly visits was too limiting. She also asked the [...]