Opposition parties, as well as election monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , alleged Monday that fraud had tainted the weekend parliamentary elections held in Tajikistan . Tajikistan's largest opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party, has accused government agents of vote-rigging and false reporting. OSCE observers stated that they witnessed "direct [...]

Citizens in Burundi voted Monday for the first time in 12 years on a constitutional referendum. The proposed constitution is designed to create an ethnically balanced government for the nation that has been suffering from an intense civil war ever since President Melchior Ndaday, Burundi's first democratically elected president, was assassinated by Tutsi rebels following [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Monday, Feb. 28. The US Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in two cases beginning at 10 AM ET today. In Spector v. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. , 03-1388, the Court will decide whether Title III of the [...]

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, World Health Organization, entered into force February 27, 2005. Read the full text of the treaty . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Approximately 50 British soldiers are facing court martial for murder, manslaughter, assault and other crimes in Iraq. The allegations against them are contained in secret military documents obtained by London's Sunday Telegraph . The documents show that almost 3 times the number of soldiers face charges than has been admitted by the British Ministry of [...]

A new World Health Organization-sponsored treaty aimed at preventing children from smoking and helping adults quit goes into effect Sunday , but its impact on the US remains to be seen. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control gives members three years to require strong health warnings on tobacco products and five years to ban advertising, [...]

Iraqi security forces say they have arrested Saddam Hussein's half-brother , the first top-level Baathist to be caught in a year. Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan was number 36 (6 of diamonds) on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis , and the US government had a $1 million bounty on his head. It was unknown if any [...]

Peter Benenson , founder of the human rights group Amnesty International, died in Oxford, England on Friday after a long illness. He was 83 . Benenson set up Amnesty in response to a call for action in an article published in the British newspaper The Observer in 1961.

Riggs National Bank has agreed to settle a Spanish lawsuit . Spanish courts and the US Justice Department had investigated Riggs for allegedly laundering money for Pinochet. Riggs also paid a $25 million fine in May 2004 for failing to follow money-laundering laws and failing to report suspicious transactions, that time between Equitorial Gineau and [...]

African leaders lifted sanctions against Togo Saturday following the resignation of Togolese president Faure Gnassingbe late Friday evening. Gnassingbe's decision to step down came amid regional and international pressure for his resignation after he was put into power by the nation's military following the death of his father, President Gnassingbe Eyadema. The Economic Community of [...]