Australian Prime Minister John Howard agreed Wednesday to hold a conscience vote on a stem cell research bill allowing therapeutic cloning if a private bill is offered to parliament. A conscience vote is a free parliamentary vote in which members are not bound by party policy. In 2002, following the results of an initial conscience [...]

Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal on Wednesday rejected a number of complaints concerning congressional races in the July 2 Mexican general election that paralleled the presidential poll currently subject to a court-ordered partial recount . Under the newly-approved seat distribution, 52 of the 128 seats in the Senate go to the National Action Party (PAN) of [...]

A federal jury in Raleigh, North Carolina reached a partial verdict Wednesday in the trial of David Passaro , a CIA contractor accused of abusing a detainee in Afghanistan , but US District Judge Terrence Boyle sealed the decision and ordered the jury to continue deliberations on other charges Thursday. The jury had sent a [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday praised new British anti-terrorism laws that helped thwart a terror plot to explode jetliners traveling over the Atlantic Ocean, saying that the provision that allows British authorities to detain terror suspects for up to 28-days without charge is a useful tool. The UK detention policy differs sharply from [...]

A British judge Wednesday night gave Scotland Yard five to seven more days to question and hold without charge 23 men currently in custody in connection with an alleged plot to bomb US planes leaving the UK for US destinations . Detectives may now question 21 of the suspects until August 23 and two of [...]

Kay Staley v. Harris County, Texas, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, August 15, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A US federal appeals court has ruled that a non-citizen cannot sue a US corporation for discrimination that allegedly occurred while he was working outside the US. The decision by the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued on Tuesday is significant because it means non-citizens employed outside the country are not protected by the [...]

Philippine legislators on Wednesday quashed a second impeachment complaint against Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo . The House Committee on Justice on voted 56-24 to dismiss the impeachment complaint against Arroyo for lack of evidence, though opposition leaders say they have seven boxes of documents to support allegations that Arroyo was guilty of "culpable violations [...]

Russia has temporarily halted the extradition of 13 Uzbeks accused of terrorist acts in connection with last year's uprising in Andijan that resulted in the massacre of hundreds unarmed Uzbek civilians by Uzbek government troops, pending an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights . The Russian Prosecutor-General decided to postpone the extradition because [...]

The British government will likely pardon 306 British soldiers – a number that includes 25 Canadians, 22 Irishmen, and 5 New Zealanders – who were executed for cowardice and desertion during World War I , ending a 16-year campaign mounted by families to have the deceased posthumously pardoned, UK Defense Secretary Des Browne announced Wednesday. [...]