Legal Services Corp. , a government-funded non-profit corporation that provides legal assistance to indigent Americans, has been using funds to provide luxuries for its board members and executives, AP reported Monday. The corporation turns away about half of all applicants due to lack of monetary resources, yet agency documents obtained by AP show that federal [...]

The Nigerian military withdrew from part of the disputed Bakassi peninsula on Monday, nearly four years after the International Court of Justice ruled that the territory and its oil reserves should be handed over to Cameroon. Implementation of the ICJ ruling was turned over to a special UN-appointed commission , under which a withdrawal was [...]

The Middle East ceasefire directed in a UN resolution adopted Friday that took effect at 8 AM local time (0500 GMT) Monday, "appears to be generally holding," Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said in a statement . The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported that it knew of no "incidents or breaches of the [...]

Australia will pursue the return of David Hicks from the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay if new charges are not brought and a military tribunal formed by November, Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock told the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday. Such a promise was made by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales , Ruddock said, [...]

Leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) will not be arrested if they attend peace talks with the Ugandan government in Sudan, a UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) official said Monday. The talks began in July but were adjourned last week because the rebels and government could not agree on terms to halt hostilities [...]

The Japanese Justice Ministry has introduced plans for a new court process that will allow crime victims to sue for damages in a civil lawsuit that runs simultaneously with a criminal trial. In an effort to help speed up compensation for victims, the planned system will allow crime victims to use evidence from the criminal [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Monday abandoned the proposed Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill that would have required asylum seekers arriving by boat to be processed at offshore camps after it became apparent that the Senate would not approve the bill . Senator Judith Troeth, a member of the governing Liberal Party , [...]

Judge Abdullah al-Amiri, a Shiite judge, will preside over the second Saddam Hussein trial by the Iraqi High Tribunal, this one involving the so-called "Anfal" operation that killed 100,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. In the new trial, scheduled to begin on August 21 , Hussein and six co-defendants are charged with genocide [...]

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador , the leftist candidate challenging the results of Mexico's disputed July 2 presidential election , said Sunday that his supporters would continue their protests in Mexico City until September or later, unless the Federal Electoral Tribunal orders a full ballot-by-ballot recount of votes. After rejecting Lopez Obrador's request for a full [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Dr. Robbie Sabel of the Hebrew University Faculty of Law in Jerusalem, Israel, offers his thoughts on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Middle East conflict involving Israel, Hezbollah and Lebanon… Borrowing from Professor D'Amato’s initiative I would like to comment on UNSC Resolution [...]