The US Supreme Court ruled in three cases Monday. In Shepard v. US , the court in a 5-3 opinion by Justice Souter held that in making sentencing determinations, judges are confined to information in the charging document, in the terms of any plea agreement terms, or admissions by the defendant made to the trial [...]

French newspaper Le Monde reported Monday that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague is about to indict Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj and issue a warrant for his arrest. No formal announcement has yet been made, but the newspaper quotes court sources as saying that the court had confirmed accusations [...]

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called an emergency, closed-door session of the UN Security Council for Monday to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, as well as the proposed deployment of over 10,000 UN peacekeeping troops to the country. UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, visiting the region over [...]

Members of Kuwait's parliament Monday agreed to speed up consideration of a government-proposed law that would give Kuwaiti women the right to vote. No specific date for debate was set, however. The agreement came as several hundred Kuwaiti women demonstrated outside the country's parliament building. An earlier bill giving Kuwaiti women the right to vote [...]

Tsunami Victims Group v. Accor North America et al., United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, March 4, 2005 . Read the full text of the complaint . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Iraqi deputy prime minister Barham Salih said Sunday that the transitional national assembly chosen in the January 30 elections and responsible for drafting a permanent constituton for Iraq replacing the current Transitional Administrative Law would meet for the first time March 16. The 275-member assembly, dominated by the 140-member United Iraqi Alliance, a grouping which [...]

More recently-declassified notes of some Guantanamo detainees' conversations with their defense attorneys include allegations that US personnel at the camp repeatedly mocked Islam, made disparaging remarks, and took religiously-abusive actions such as that of a prison barber in cutting the shape of a cross into a detainee's hair. The latest revelations are consistent with previous [...]

An Israeli cabinet minister has called for the Palestinian Authority to reverse a decision publicized Thursday to reintroduce capital punishment and to immediately stay the scheduled execution of accused collaborators with Israel . The call by Natan Sharansky , Israel's minister for Jerusalem and diaspora affairs, came in a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon [...]

Some 60 European survivors and relatives of victims of the December 26 South Asia tsunami led by controversial personal injury lawyer Edward Fagan formally filed suit in New York Friday against the Thai government, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA; Indian Ocean tsunami warnings timeline) and French-owned hotel chain Sofitel . The action, [...]

Italian prosecutors have questioned Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was wounded late Friday by US forces after she was released by her kidnappers at the end of a month-long hostage ordeal. An Italian security agent was killed in the incident. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi angrily summoned the US ambassador immediately after the shooting to [...]