A Japanese court Tuesday refused to grant a petition by a group of Japanese and South Korean citizens seeking to stop Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara from visiting a Shinto shrine honoring Japan's war dead, including convicted World War II war criminals. The petitioners had argued in Tokyo District Court [...]

The Iraq Survey Group investigating the existence of possible Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) reported publicly Monday that it could find no evidence that any such weapons were transferred to Syria in an effort to hide them from inspectors, although it did not rule out the possibility of some unofficial transfers. Review the report [...]

The number of death sentences handed down in 2004 was the lowest since 1976, according to new statistics released by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund . A total of 125 people were sentenced to death by US courts in 2004, down from 144 in 2003, and 300 in 1998. Texas mandated the death penalty in [...]

Mexico City mayor Lopez Obrador returned to work Monday despite government contentions that that was illegal and that he had in fact lost his job after the country's Congress lifted his immunity from prosecution earlier this month on a contempt charge. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans turned out over the weekend to demonstrate in his [...]

A Chilean court Monday freed a portion of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet's previously-frozen assets to allow the ex-dictator to pay five years of back taxes. Judge Sergio Munoz froze the assets last year after finding that Pinochet and his family put about $17 million in some 100 foreign bank accounts which were never reported [...]

Togo's electoral commission Tuesday released provisional figures indicating that ruling party candidate Faure Gnassingbe won Sunday's disputed presidential election, taking 60.22% of the vote as against 38.19% for opposition coalition leader Emmanuel Bob-Akitani. Allegations of fraud surrounded the poll, which was marred by violence in the capital, Lome, although not to the extent earlier predicted [...]

Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2004, US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, April 24, 2005 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Admitting that nations cannot effectively tackle the issues alone, delegates to the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Bangkok, Thailand, concluded their session Monday by pledging international cooperation and an integrated approach in international crime prevention and anti-terror efforts. Participants, numbering more than 3,000 delegates from 130 countries, admitted that the lack [...]

Senate leaders Bill Frist and Harry Reid have been meeting privately in hopes of reaching a deal in which Senate Democrats would allow confirmation of at least two of President Bush's seven disputed nominees for appellate judgeships, but only as part of a larger agreement in which Republicans would end their attack on judicial filibusters. [...]

A US investigation into the accidental shooting death of an Italian agent in Iraq by American soldiers has cleared the troops of the wrongdoing, an Army official said Monday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official also said that the troops will not be disciplined in the matter, but that the Italian government disagrees with [...]