The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has urged Nepal's Maoist Communist Party (CPN-M) to end alleged abductions and other abuses committed by the party. In a letter following up on a meeting last week, the OHCHR warned that any abduction of non-combatants would violate international human rights law. Some of [...]

A lawyer for Morgan Stanley asked a three-judge panel of the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal on Wednesday to overturn a "disproportionate" 2005 jury verdict awarded to billionaire financier and Revlon Chairman Ron Perelman. In oral arguments Wednesday, lawyer Bruce Rogow asserted that the suit should have been tried under New York state law, [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday signed off on requirements for obtaining a photo ID card that citizens of Georgia must present to vote in elections. Georgia's State Election Board , which voted last week to clear the rules , will meet Thursday to discuss whether the rules can be implemented before the [...]

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called for congressional action on regulation of the hedge fund industry, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. Blumenthal told the panel that federal oversight was needed to fill a "regulatory void" and said that states would exercise their police powers to regulate hedge funds if Congress hesitates to "toughen [...]

Terry Collins , director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has set forth several changes in Ohio's lethal injection protocol in a report and letter addressed to Ohio Governor Bob Taft made public Wednesday. The changes were prompted by the problematic May execution of Joseph Clark , where the execution was delayed for [...]

Lisl Brunner : ""Asesino!" resounds from the stained-glass windows and marble columns of the makeshift courtroom in the city hall of La Plata, an hour south of Buenos Aires. Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, former Director of Investigations of the Buenos Aires Police Department during Argentina's last military junta, has just appeared to face charges of kidnapping, [...]

Indonesia is preparing to execute three men convicted in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings , a spokesman from the Indonesian Attorney General's office said Wednesday. Under Indonesian law, spokesman Wayan Pasek Suarte could not disclose the location or date when the three men will be executed by firing squad, but he indicated that the government [...]

A UK High Court judge ruled Wednesday that control orders authorizing the electronic monitoring or house arrest of terror suspects where there is not enough evidence to prosecute or convict them violate Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights , which protects against indefinite detentions. Mr. Justice Sullivan quashed the control orders of [...]

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit seeking an order compelling Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to stop visiting the Yasukuni war shrine , a shrine that honors all Japanese war dead, including war criminals. The lawsuit, filed by 137 Japanese and South Korean plaintiffs and a South Korean advocacy group also sought [...]

Human rights groups have condemned the decision of the al-Warraq Misdemeanor Court in Egypt to sentence controversial newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa to a year in prison for publishing a report critical of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak . The case against Eissa, the former editor of the independent weekly al-Dustour, arose from an April 2005 report [...]