Iraq released 500 detainees from Abu Ghraib prison Friday as part of an ongoing national reconciliation plan first announced by new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki earlier this month. Maliki promised that 2,500 prisoners held in US detention facilities and under Iraqi custody would be released if the detainees "are not Saddam Hussein loyalists or [...]
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The Japanese Supreme Court Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine , according to a court spokesperson who did not provide details on the ruling. The suit was brought by 338 plaintiff survivors of South Korean, Japanese, and Chinese soldiers killed during wars involving Japan, [...]
Two Russian officials switched roles Thursday, as President Vladimir Putin appointed former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to the justice minister post several hours after former Justice Minister Yury Chaika was approved as the new prosecutor general in a 91-1 vote by the Federation Council , the upper house of parliament. Ustinov resigned from the justice [...]
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court has delayed the verdict in the trial of Zhao Yan , a former New York Times researcher, a defense lawyer said Friday. Zhao has been indicted for "providing state secrets to foreigners" following a 2004 New York Times report that revealed the resignation of Jiang Zemin as head [...]
Republican House leaders Thursday clarified the timing and purpose of proposed nationwide immigration hearings , deflecting criticism that the hearings were intended to delay a House vote on comprehensive immigration reform until after November elections. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert told a news conference Thursday that hearings will begin the first week in July [...]
Canadian Justice Minister Vic Toews introduced a bill in the Canadian House of Commons Thursday that would raise the age of sexual consent to 16 in a bid to crack down on Internet predators . If the legislation is passed, it would mark the first time Canada has changed the age of consent since it [...]
European Union diplomats on Thursday agreed to revive an agreement with the United States that compels European airlines to disclose information about passengers flying from Europe to the US. The EU and US first reached such an agreement in 2004, but the European Court of Justice struck down the agreement last month as illegal because [...]
Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants ended a brief hunger strike late Thursday after Hussein missed only one meal. Hussein began the hunger strike in protest of the murder of one of his defense lawyers early Wednesday morning and to highlight the need for additional security. At the outset of the hunger strike, leading defense [...]
US Central Intelligence Agency counterterrorism agents secretly reviewed financial records of Americans listed in an international database after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks , focusing on people with links to al Qaeda, according to reports by the New York Times late Thursday and the Los Angeles Times Friday. The database, from a Belgian cooperative named [...]
Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, UN General Assembly, June 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the Optional Protocol. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
