Amnesty International said Saturday that Sudan has arrested and mistreated a human rights lawyer documenting the killing of 30 people in refugee camps outside of Khartoum last May. Amnesty considers the lawyer to be a prisoner of conscience, “detained solely for his work in defense of human rights.” The Sudanese government has denied firing upon [...]

A committee of three prominent South African judges published a report Friday calling for voluntary diversity training and the founding of a national body to hear disputes over allegations of racism within the South African judicial system. The committee was formed last April in response to allegations made by the Chief Judge of Capetown accusing [...]

A private bill introduced by former Blair cabinet minister Clare Short that would have given British lawmakers veto power over the Prime Minister's prerogative to declare war failed to progress Friday after the House of Commons could not muster the 100 votes required for it to progress. The government did not support the bill. Under [...]

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Michael Garcia has charged and arrested Houston oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt for his involvement in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal . Garcia also charged two Swiss bank executives as well as several corporations controlled by the defendants for paying kickback money to the Saddam Hussein regime in [...]

Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Ali Kamal said Saturday that the Iraqi government will step up security measures for the 12 remaining defense lawyers representing Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants. The announcement comes two days after Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, a defense lawyer for co-defendant Awad Hamed al-Bandar, a former chief judge charged with issuing [...]

The son of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri , Saad al-Hariri, has praised the findings of a UN investigation into the February 4 assassination of the former leader and 20 other people in Beirut and called for an international trial to punish those responsible for his murder. The report implicates Syrian officials in [...]

New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller sent an e-mail to staff members Friday, expressing regrets about his handling of Times reporter Judith Miller and her role in the CIA operative leak case . Keller said he missed "warning signals" about Miller's role in the case, and her "entanglement" with Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief [...]

President Bush announced his nomination of Paul J. McNulty to serve as US Deputy Attorney General Friday. McNulty has served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia since 2001, prosecuting a number of high-profile terrorism cases, including that of Zacarias Moussaoui. The Senate must confirm McNulty's nomination, but according to administration officials [...]

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) released updated voter turnout statistics for the October 15 Iraqi constitutional referendum Friday, reporting a 63 percent turnout among the country's 15.5 million registered voters. The referendum drew a three-percent higher turnout than the Sunni-boycotted parliamentary elections in January . Official referendum results are expected next week after [...]

The Moscow Bar Association reported Friday that it had found no evidence to disbar three lawyers on the defense team of jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky . On September 23 the Russian Prosecutor General's office requested that eight of Khodorkovsky's lawyers be stripped of their law licenses for dragging out his appeal, allegedly to [...]