The Geneva Conventions of 1949 is now the first international treaty to gain universal international acceptance, according to Jean-Philippe Lavoyer, head of the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) . Lavoyer said on Monday that with accessions to the Geneva Conventions by Nauru on June 27, and Montenegro on August [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report Tuesday finding that security forces in Guinea are routinely torturing people to coerce confessions in an increasingly unstable domestic climate. According to the report, "the most common types of abuse committed by the police…include binding the detainee with nylon cords in painful positions and then beating him." Within [...]

The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday voiced disapproval of congressional efforts to address "net neutrality," arguing that if current regulations do not prevent broadband providers from accepting money from content providers in exchange for preferential bandwidth treatment, or from interfering with the content of competitors, then the free market will resolve [...]

A UN committee charged with creating worldwide standards to protect persons with disabilities has been swamped with 150 proposed amendments to the draft convention currently under discussion. The Eighth Session of the committee on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has made progress in several key areas, according to conference chair [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has overturned a Missouri law banning sexually suggestive billboards on highways, saying that it was an unconstitutional infringement on commercial free speech. The court ruled Monday that the law, which was enacted in 2004 to protect children and prevent traffic accidents, was too broad. According to [...]

A federal judge on Tuesday consented to a deferred-prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors and investment banker Frank Quattrone that allows Quattrone to avoid a third trial on obstruction of justice and witness tampering charges without admitting guilt. Under the deal, the indictment against Quattrone will be dropped if he keeps his name clear for one [...]

An Iraqi official said Tuesday that an independent panel established to investigate the alleged March 12 rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the murder of her family at the hands of US soldiers in Mahmudiya has begun its inquiry. The US military has charged five soldiers in the case and is currently deciding [...]

Eleven suspects charged in connection with the foiled terror plot to bomb airplanes crossing the Atlantic Ocean appeared in a UK court for the first time Tuesday. Eight defendants were remanded in custody until a hearing on September 4, two were remanded until September 19, and the last, a 17-year-old-boy, was remanded until August 29. [...]

Witness testimony began Tuesday in Saddam Hussein's trial on genocide and crimes against humanities charges in connection to the so-called "Anfal" operation that led to the killings of as many as 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. Two survivors described planes flying over two Kurdish villages dropping chemical weapons on the villagers and [...]

Legal papers belonging to Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks were among those seized by US investigators in a probe into the June suicides of three other Guantanamo inmates – a Yemeni and two Saudis – at the US military prison in June, according to Australian media reports Monday. The seizure of Hicks' material and similar [...]