In what Interior Minister Habib al-Adli claimed was the largest turnout ever in a registered referendum, 83% of Egyptian voters have backed a change in election law that allows multi-candidate presidential elections. The high turnout was marred however by attacks from Egyptian police and demonstrators against anti-referendum activists, attacks which President Bush Thursday condemned as [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved a $140 billion asbestos compensation fund in a 13-5 vote. The controversial fund is to be paid for by companies facing asbestos litigation and their insurers in an effort to end asbestos injury lawsuits and victims will now appeal to the fund rather than sue in court. The [...]

The verdict reading for oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky continued into its ninth day Thursday. Khodorkovsky, former CEO of Russian oil firm Yukos , and his partner Platon Lebedev have been indicted for fraud and embezzlement . Issues addressed by the court on Thursday concerned the corporate tax evasion charges against both men. Defense lawyers believes [...]

Thailand's Constitutional Court Thursday found the members of Thailand's anti-corruption commission, the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) , guilty of illegally increasing their pay. The court, however, did not enforce possible two year jail sentences in light of all the good work the watchdog commission had done in the past. It is still unknown whether [...]

The judge presiding over the trial of former HealthSouth Corp CEO Richard Scrushy , attempted Wednesday to prevent the trial from ending in a mistrial or a hung jury. Scrushy is on trial for conspiracy, fraud, false reporting, and money laundering, though earlier counts of perjury against him have been dropped . The controversy surrounding [...]

The Federal Election Commission announced Thursday that the Democratic National Committee , the Rev. Jesse Jackson and two groups Jackson works closely will pay a total of $200,000 in civil fines for violations of campaign finance laws. The FEC investigated a total of $450,000 spent in the 2000 election campaign by Jackson with the Rainbow/PUSH [...]

The US House of Representatives has passed a $491 billion defense measure, HR 1815 , which among other things leaves any decisions on the placement of women in war zones up to the Pentagon pending Congressional approval. House Republicans had previously attempted to add an amendment to the bill which would limit womens' roles in [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, government lawyers for the Royal Commission for Corruption Control have begun arguments before the commission in the case against former Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba , former Foreign Minister Prakash Man Singh and other charged by the government of embezzling public funds from the Melamchi Drinking Water Project. The alleged [...]

As the search for bodies entered its 8th day Thursday, a Chilean military prosecutor said the officers commanding 46 teenage soldiers killed in a blizzard during a training march in the Andes face possible charges and prison sentences. According to Colonel Sergio Cea of the International Association for Military Justice , the three officers involved [...]

Log of (and links to) FBI records of interviews with Guantanamo detainees in 2002 and 2003 concerning treatment of prisoners and of the Koran by US personnel . Read the full text of the interview records here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.