UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated yesterday in a BBC interview that he believed the Iraq war was illegal under international law. He said that US-led forces should have waited for a second resolution after Iraq failed to comply with a Security Council demand for the admission of weapon's inspectors. The UN must be included in global issues such as the Iraq situation for any level of credibility to attach itself to the cause, stated Annan. Watch video of the interview. BBC has more. Australian Prime Minister John Howard Friday rejected the Secretary-General's claims, declaring that the war in Iraq was 'perfectly valid under international law'. Howard also criticized the UN for being a body paralyzed by political forces. Howard referred to the current humanitarian crisis in the Darfur Region of the Sudan and likened the Security Council's failure to act there to the situation that occurred just prior to the Iraq war. The Australian has more.

In other international law news...

• An Indonsian court has held a Tempo magazine editor guilty of libel against a prominent local businessman. The ruling raises concerns over freedom of the press in Indonesia, since the charges were brought under criminal law as opposed to the country's press law, which governs specific violations of journalistic bodies. BBC has more.
  
  
• Following a ruling from the Inter-American Court on Human Rights earlier this week, an American citizen serving a 50 years to life sentence in Mexico will now appeal to Mexican President Vicente Fox (official site in Spanish). The IACHR ruled that it had no jurisdiction over Alfonso Martin del Campo Dodd, whose 1992 murder conviciton in Mexico occurred before the Mexican government recognized the IACHR in 1998. Martin claims that his conviction rests solely on his confession, which he alleges was obtained through torture by the Mexican police. One of the officers involved in the orignal arrest was later suspended following an admission that he tortured the suspect. The San Luis Obispo has more.