Louisiana officials arrested a doctor and two nurses Monday night in connection with patient deaths at the Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina hit last year. Though prosecutors have not formally charged the three – Dr. Anna Pou, Cheri Landry and Laura Bubo – a spokesman for Louisiana Attorney General Charles [...]

A Dutch court on Monday rejected a request to ban a political party that wants to lower the age of sexual consent from 16 to 12, saying "the freedom to set up a political party" can be viewed as "the basis for a democratic society." Opponents had asked The Hague District Court to bar the [...]

The US Senate continues debate Tuesday on embryonic stem cell research funding with a vote set for Tuesday afternoon on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act to provide government funding for stem cell research, despite a definitive statement from the Bush administration that President Bush will veto the bill . The administration referred to the [...]

The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday added war crimes to the charges against Momcilo Mandic, the former Bosnian Serb justice minister in the wartime government under Radovan Karadzic . Mandic has been charged under Article 173 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina and crimes against humanity [...]

A court in Serbia issued a new international arrest warrant Monday for Mirjana Markovic , the wife of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic . The court issued the warrant because Markovic on multiple occasions has failed to appear in court on abuse of power charges in connection to obtaining a flat for the family nanny. [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Anthony D'Amato of Northwestern University School of Law says that while the legal status of the current Middle East conflict embroiling Israel and Lebanon is not easily characterized by traditional definitions of international armed conflict, it falls at least partially under a doctrine originating closer to home… In the eyes of the [...]

Making the first US appearance before the UN Human Rights Committee in more than a decade, American officials on Monday defended their position that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not govern many aspects of the war on terror. In a media roundtable in conjunction with a committee hearing in Geneva, Mark [...]

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has signed the controversial anti-terrorism bill which the country's parliament passed on June 29, but says he will allow the country's constitutional court to delete several clauses without specifying which would be stricken. The law has been criticized by media and human rights groups which claim legislators approved the measure [...]

The US House of Representatives Monday approved a bill by voice vote that would make a 2000 treaty between the US and Russia effective to protect the future of the world's polar bears (Ursus maritimus) . The bill establishes quotas for allowable polar bear hunting in the two countries and prohibits the possession, sale or [...]

Democratic Party officials in Missouri filed a class-action lawsuit Monday seeking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of a new state law that requires voters to show photo identification at the polls . The law, signed by Gov. Matt Blunt last month, allows voters who can't produce ID to cast provisional ballots that will be [...]