Lebanese President Emile Lahoud signed a decree Thursday setting legislative elections for May 29 through June 19 under an electoral law which opposition supporters claim will favor pro-Syrian loyalists and limit Christian representation . The law , drafted in 2000 and applied in that year's legislative elections when Lebanon was still under Syrian control, arranges [...]
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Desmond de Silva, a UK national appointed Thursday as the new chief prosecutor for the UN-affilated Special Court for Sierra Leone immediately renewed a call made earlier this week by his predecessor David Crane his for former President of Liberia Charles Taylor , now living in Nigeria, to be brought to justice. De Silva will [...]
The case of Pfc. Lynndie England has gone to Fort Hood commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz in the wake of Wednesday's rejection of her guilty plea by court-martial judge Col. James Pohl. Metz must determine whether England should be charged again, and if so, how. If charges are brought a second time, England will have [...]
Former Nepalese prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been charged by Nepal's new anti-corruption commission with misappropriation of state funds while in office, allegedly diverting money from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. Deuba and his government were dismissed February 1 after King Gyanendra declared a state of emergency as a result of the Maoist revolution [...]
Juan Guzman, the Chilean judge best known for indicting military strongman and former dictator General Augusto Pinochet , has announced his retirement. Guzman indicted Pinochet twice, first in a case relating to the Caravan of Death which executed 70 political prisoners, and second in a case relating to Operation Condor , a plan to hunt [...]
New Ecuadorian President Alfredo Palacio announced Wednesday that a referendum will be scheduled in the next six months in an effort to stabilize the country's political situation. The referendum is expected to ask voters such questions as whether or not the current presidential system should be replaced by a parliamentary government. Ecuador has been plagued [...]
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi , head of the Iran Judiciary took the unusual step Thursday of criticizing the treatment of criminal detainees by Iranian police, and compared their interrogation techniques to those employed by US soldiers at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison . Shahrudi denounced what he called cases of the police issuing summons, making arrests, [...]
A federal appeals court has denied a request by the Georgia Cobb County School Board to keep disclaimer stickers calling evolution a "theory, not a fact" on the inside of district textbooks while appealing their case . Earlier this year, a federal district court ordered the School Board to remove the stickers on grounds that [...]
US Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) Wednesday called on House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr. to hold hearings to probe recent allegations that the military staged interrogations at Guantanamo Bay to deceive visiting lawmakers. Schiff’s request comes one week after former Army Sgt. Erik Saar, who served as a Guantanamo Bay translator and recently published [...]
In a 68-44 vote, the Florida House of Representatives has passed a measure that would allow judges to reduce or eliminate alimony when a recipient ex-spouse moves in with someone else. Under current Florida law, and in most jurisdictions in the country, judges are allowed to end alimony when a recipient remarries. Supporters of the [...]
