Members of the Philippines House of Representatives on Thursday voted 173-32 to uphold a decision last week by the House Committee on Justice , defeating impeachment proceedings against Philippines President Gloria Macapagal and preventing a trial in the Senate. Macapagal has been accused of vote rigging, bribery, graft, corruption, human rights abuses and violations of [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Wednesday urged the adoption of an increasingly-problematic draft of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , a proposed treaty to protect the rights of the disabled. Arbour said the agreement would "address the stereotypes and prejudices that deny persons with disabilities enjoyment of [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday approved the over-the-counter sale of the "morning after" or Plan B emergency contraceptive pill , to women 18 and over. A controversial provision of the FDA's approval requires a doctor's prescription for women under 18 years old. The drug's manufacturer, Barr Laboratories , will be responsible [...]

Chen Guangcheng , a blind Chinese human rights legal activist, was sentenced Thursday to four years and three months in prison for damaging property and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." Chen supporters have said, however, that the charges were fabricated and he was actually arrested for reporting complaints of government mandated abortions and forced [...]

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into how CBS News and other media outlets learned of a criminal investigation into the activities of two pro-Israel lobbyists before they were formally charged. In an opinion released Tuesday, US District Judge T.S. Ellis III declined to throw out the evidence against [...]

A lawsuit filed by the United Mine Workers of America , seeking to compel the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to perform periodic checks of "self-contained self-rescuers" oxygen units and lead mandatory emergency training for all mine workers, was dismissed Wednesday. The claim was filed in June in response to Congressional changes to [...]

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that former presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate Peter Miguel Camejo must pay more than $80,000 in expenses for a lawsuit challenging Nader's petition drive and nominating papers to appear on the 2004 Pennsylvania ballot. A group of voters filed a lawsuit challenging the documents, and [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Mark Brown, holder of the Newton D. Baker/Baker and Hostetler Chair at Capital University School of Law, says that forcing unsuccessful 2004 presidential candidate Ralph Nader to pay after-the-fact for a ballot contest instigated against him in Pennsylvania when his campaign was found to have committed no wrongdoing is constitutionally dubious… The [...]

Murphy v. IRS, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, August 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Deliberate destruction or "collateral damage"? Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure, Amnesty International, August 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.