A US District Court judge refused Sunday to issue a temporary restraining order barring the hand-counting of ballots in the recount of Washington's governor's race. The lawsuit, filed Saturday by the Washington State Republican Party, asked the court to bar hand-counting of ballots that are rejected by voting machines. State rules require a machine recount [...]

Members of the Paris Club agreed Sunday to write-off $31 billion in Iraqi debt. All 19 members of the multinational group of creditor countries, which include France, Germany and the US, agreed to eliminate 80% of Iraq's $39 billion debt over the course of 3 years. 30% of the debt will be eliminated immediately, and [...]

Expressing frustration over slow extradition processes, Peruvian state attorney Nelly Calderon said Sunday that the International Court of Justice should be called upon to take the case against former President Alberto Fujimori. Fujimori fled Peru for Japan in 2000 and various requests for extradition have failed. Fujimori is accused of corruption and of responsibility in [...]

Following up on a story reported earlier today in JURIST's Paper Chase, King Hamad of Bahrain commuted the year-long jail term of human rights activist Abdul Hadi al-Kharwaja shortly after his sentencing on Sunday. Although he did not pardon al-Kharwaja of the charges laid against him, he stressed the need to preserve democratic reforms made [...]

Rick Hasen, Loyola Law School Los Angeles: "The incumbent mayor, Dick Murphy, will be reelected unless one of the three lawsuits currently pending is successful, or unless there is a recount that will lead to a different result. News stories on the end of counting showing Murphy in the lead are here and here. I [...]

The defense team for more than 100 Mauritanian soldiers and civilians accused of a coup attempt said Sunday they will boycott a trial they view as unfair. The lawyers cite the appointment of 2 military officers as judges and removal of the trial to a distant military base. The lawyers put a halt to the [...]

Peru says it will ignore any ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights advocating the release of American Lori Berenson. Berenson has been jailed in Peru since her 1995 arrest and 2001 conviction for terrorist collaboration with Marxist guerrillas, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. She was originally sentenced to life in prison, but was [...]

A Bahraini court Sunday sentenced human rights activist Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja to one year in prison for inciting hatred against the government. Al-Khawaja, the vice president of the now banned Bahrain Center for Human Rights, had accused the government of financial mismanagement and called for the resignation of the Prime Minister Sheik Khalifa bin Salman [...]

The Iraqi Electoral Commission announced Sunday that it has set January 30, 2005 as the date for national elections. Iraqis will vote for 275 members of a transitional parliament that will pick a new government and draft a permanent constitution to replace the interim document now in force. Once a constitution is enacted, the transitional [...]

Following up on a story reported earlier this afternoon in JURIST's Paper Chase, an apparent bipartisan deal to pass intelligence reform legislation based on recommendations of the 9/11 Commission collapsed on the House floor at the last minute late Saturday as Republicans blocked its passage, prompting sharp criticism from Democrats who thought they had an [...]