Citizens in the former Soviet republic of Armenia voted Sunday on constitutional amendments to impose stricter separation of powers between the judicial, executive and legislative branches. The amendments also remove a clause in the Armenian constitution barring Armenian citizens from obtaining dual citizenship. The US and EU support the constitutional amendments which will strengthen democracy, [...]

Britain has caused a diplomatic stir by rejecting a proposal advanced by US ambassador to the UN John Bolton to block the upcoming UN budget as a way to press disputed reforms to the beleagured world organization. Bolton suggested last week that the UN push back the two-year budget talks as a means to overcome [...]

Former Philippines election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano emerged from hiding Sunday to clear President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from election fraud allegations. Garcillano has not been seen in public since June, when the opposition released recordings of conversations that claimed to be of Garcillano and Arroyo planning to fix the results of the May 2004 national elections. [...]

Lawyers for Saddam Hussein, reinforced by the late addition of Johnson-era US attorney general Ramsey Clark and former Qatari justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi, said Sunday that they would ask for another adjournment of the ousted Iraqi dictator's trial when the proceeding resumes in a fortified Baghdad courtroom Monday. The trial was initially adjourned soon after [...]

A US military spokesman has said there is no secret detainee camp run by the US in Kosovo, although the US military there does share a well-known detention facility with NATO as part of the latter's KFOR operation. Major Michael Wunn spoke to AFP after Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles , [...]

Investigation into the Gumbad incident, executive summary, US Central Command . Released November 26, 2005. Read the full text of the executive summary from US Central Command. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US military officials announced Saturday that four American soldiers will not face criminal charges for burning the bodies of two Taliban rebels in Afghanistan , though they will be subject to disciplinary action. The US Department of Defense began an investigation into the alleged desecration of the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters last month [...]

The head of the Council of Europe investigation into possible secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe said Friday that the existence of large detention centers for US terror detainees in the region was unlikely. In a statement before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council, Europe's human rights watchdog body, Swiss Senator Dick Marty indicated that [...]

Hundreds of supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood complained of unwarranted arrests Saturday during the runoff for the second round of Egyptian parliamentary elections , alleging that at least 270 were detained outside of polling stations in Alexandria, the Nile Delta and Qena. The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed for more than 50 years in [...]

Syria agreed Friday to allow UN investigators to question five unidentified Syrian officials at the Vienna UN offices in connection with the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri . The agreement has pleased chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis, who was on the verge of giving up on Syrian cooperation . Deputy Foreign [...]