{JURIST] Nepal's foreign minister said Thursday that King Gyanendra would soon lift the civil liberties restrictions imposed last month after he declared a state of emergency , dismissed the government, and seized power himself in a bid to stabilize a country plagued by an ongoing Maoist rebellion. Speaking in the capital Kathmandu, Ramesh Nath Pandey [...]

Confirming earlier US military statements , Iraqi human rights minister Bakhtiar Amin told reporters Thursday that the US will hand over control of Abu Ghraib , and three other prisons west of Baghdad to Iraq's interim government. Amin calls the agreement to turn over control of the infamous prison an important sign of Iraq's new [...]

The Clear Skies Act of 2005 , S. 131, stalled in the US Senate Wednesday after a split 9-9 vote in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee . Senate rules do not allow a bill to advance to the Senate floor on a split committee vote, so the legislation in its current form would [...]

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Thursday rejected a US call for China to "reconsider" its proposed anti-secession law allowing for "non-peaceful" reunification of the country as a last resort, labeling Washington's comments "irresponsible" and warning the US not to help any efforts by Taiwan to assert its independence. The new law is expected to be [...]

A lawyer representing a German-born Turk held at the US terror suspect detention camp at Guanatanamo Bay claimed Wednesday that his client had been subjected to torture, physical abuse and sexual humilation by interrogators. Murat Kurnaz , 22, is said to have been captured in Pakistan after travelling there in October 2001. His lawyer denied [...]

A lawsuit filed last week in New York against the Thai government, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a French a hotel chain in connection with the December 26 tsunami in Southeast Asia has prompted the Thai government to withhold findings of a study into the disaster. A Thai seismologist in charge of [...]

The Russian oil company Yukos has taken its recently-dismissed bankruptcy case to US District Court in a bid to hold off creditors long enough for it to appeal. US District Judge Nancy Atlas said Wednesday she would rule on Yukos' case by March 18. The original bankruptcy petition was rejected last month by a US [...]

AP is reporting that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague has charged ex-Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, formerly a senior commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army, with 37 counts of war crimes. 9:52 AM ET – The ICTY has posted the full text of the indictment, plus a press release. [...]

An investigation of US military interrogation policies and techniques presented to Congress Thursday by former US Navy Inspector-General Vice Adm. Albert T. Church has concluded that senior civilian and military leaders did not encourage abuse of prisoners and applied no pressure to go beyond the limits pf permissible interrogation practices. The full text of the [...]

The US State Department announced Wednesday that the United States has withdrawn from a protocol giving the International Court of Justice at the Hague authority to decide disputes between states arising from interpretation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations , recognizing the right of arrested foreign nationals to get help from their consulates [...]