A federal judge in Oregon allowed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Church to move forward Wednesday, rejecting the Vatican's bid to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction. The ruling allows a Seattle-area man to continue with his claim that the Holy See is liable for transferring the Rev. Andrew Ronan from Ireland [...]

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced Thursday that Iraq's parliament has approved his nominee for the country's controversial Interior Ministry, ending a three-week stalemate between Shiite and Sunni political blocs. Nominees for the defense and national security ministries were also approved, completing the formation of Maliki's new government. The new Interior Minister taking charge of [...]

Carla Del Ponte , chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has said that she will ask the UN Security Council to grant the ICTY power to apprehend former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic . Speaking Wednesday at a Security Council meeting, Del Ponte expressed [...]

Gen. Michael Hagee , commandant of the US Marine Corps, has said he will not resign amid investigations into whether Marines killed Iraqi civilians in unprovoked attacks, adding that he is responsible for the training of his troops and will ensure those involved are held accountable if the allegations are true. In a Pentagon briefing [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University and a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says that despite recent pressure by reformist judges for political reform in Egypt, judges are unlikely agents of fundamental change and their efforts are much more likely [...]

A Guantanamo Bay detainee from Yemen involved in a clash with guards in May told his defense lawyer that guards had instigated the incident when they tried to handle Korans owned by detainees, the defense lawyer said Wednesday. The Yemen detainee's account contradicts reports given by Guantanamo guards and Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, spokesman for [...]

A military court in Syria has sentenced writer Mohammad Ghanem to six months in prison for "insulting the Syrian president, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest," a human rights group said Wednesday. The charges stem from Ghanem's articles published on a website he edits, Surion , that call on the Baathist ruling party [...]

Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states, Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe, June 7, 2006 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The disciplinary committee of Spain's General Judicial Council said Wednesday that it will investigate why Spanish judge Juan Del Olmo failed to apply for an extension of the detainment of a suspect in the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings . As a result of Del Olmo's failure to ask for the extension, a High [...]

Washington's gay civil rights act took effect on Wednesday, after opponents of the legislation failed to collect enough signatures to put the bill before voters. The law rewrites Washington's Civil Rights Act to include the phrase "sexual orientation" among the classes of people protected from housing discrimination, lending, and employment. Opponents of the bill failed [...]