The State Council of China released a 41-page report Wednesday claiming significant progress in the promotion and protection of human rights. The document reported over 1,500 investigations and prosecutions of government officials alleged to have violated human rights in the country in 2004. Read the ful text of the 2004 Human Rights Report . The [...]

AP is reporting that the European Parliament has approved the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union in 2007. 8:32 AM ET – The European Parliament voted 497-93, with 71 abstentions, in favor of Romania's accession to the European Union and 522-70, with 69 abstentions, on Bulgaria's entry into the EU. The European [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he would not seek to amend the Russian constitution so that he could run for a third consecutive term. Russia's constitution does not allow the president to serve more than two consecutive terms but does not bar the president from seeking a third term later, and Putin indicated [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Wednesday, April 13. The US Senate convenes at 9:30 AM ET today, when it will consider H.R. 1268 , the Iraq/Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations bill. Watch a live webcast of the session. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing at [...]

United States v. Barot, et al., Southern District of New York, April 12, 2005 . Read the full text of the indictment here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Following up on a story reported on JURIST's Paper Chase earlier today, Canadian parliamentarians late Tuesday afternoon turned back an opposition amendment to government-proposed same-sex marriage legislation that would have limited marriage to union between a man and a woman. Thirty government Liberal MPs split from their party in supporting the traditionalist amendment, but members [...]

The top religious official in Saudi Arabia has banned the practice of allowing parents to force women to marry. Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik said in a statement that coercion to marry was "un-Islamic," and that fathers who forced their daughters to marry would be imprisoned. The divorce rate in Saudi Arabia is 50 percent, and forced [...]

The nomination of John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN is expected to be approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as early as Thursday, despite intense criticism by a former State Department official during a hearing Tuesday. The key senator on the committee, RI Sen. Lincoln Chafee , said he remained inclined to [...]

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has announced that the state will join nine others in suing the Environmental Protection Agency over a recently announced rule to reduce mercury emissions. The lawsuit, led by New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey , alleges that the rule violates the Clean Air Act because it does not regulate mercury as [...]

John Negroponte on Tuesday promised that security and intelligence agencies would not use torture in gathering intelligence under his watch as National Director of Intelligence. Negroponte faced tough questioning during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee , which continues throughout this afternoon. In response to a question of whether interrogations of suspects would [...]