US District Judge Jack B. Weinstien Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of millions of Vietnamese that claim American chemical companies committed war crimes by supplying the military with Agent Orange, a chemical agent containing dioxin, a highly toxic substance that causes cancer and birth defects. In a lengthy opinion , Weinstein stated there [...]

The UN Security Council has urged government officials in Haiti to curb human rights violations and expedite the releases of political leaders currently held in prison. In a statement Wednesday the Council urged the interim Haitian government to calm violence in the area in preparation for elections scheduled for later this year. UN peacekeepers have [...]

Lawyers for the survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot petitioned the Supreme Court Wednesday to hear their case seeking reparations. The case was thrown out of a federal district on the grounds that the two-year statute of limitations had run on the survivors’ claim. Harvard law professor Charles J. Ogletree , who represents the [...]

As anticipated , Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee Hwa submitted his resignation Thursday, citing health reasons for leaving his post two years before the expiry of his second 5-year term. He denied claims that the Chinese government had pressured him into leaving office, although Chinese officials had made it clear in recent public meetings [...]

{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 [...]