US Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby , commander of Joint Task Force – Guantanamo Bay, has said that the US military plans to improve conditions by providing low-risk detainees at Guantanamo Bay more educational and recreational opportunities, according to an AP interview published Thursday. Buzby acknowledged that there are benefits to giving detainees external [...]

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that women's rights activists should not attempt to reconcile or replace the Sharia with international conventions or western ideals of women's rights, saying Wednesday that the current Islamic jurisprudence may only be altered if new insight is supported by the Qur'an and Sunnah . Khamenei's comments, made [...]

Ethiopian troops conducting counter-insurgency operations have violated international humanitarian law by burning homes and property and ordering civilians to vacate from at least a dozen villages in the eastern Somali region, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Wednesday. HRW Africa director Peter Takirambudde said that the "civilians in Somali region are trapped between the warring parties" [...]

A Belgian court Wednesday convicted former Rwandan Army Major Bernard Ntuyahaga of premeditated homicide for Ntuyahaga's role in the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers tasked with providing security for then-Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana in the first week of the 1994 Rwandan genocide . The jury also convicted Ntuyahaga of killing several Tutsis, but acquitted [...]

Russian officials with the Office of the Prosecutor-General have formally denied a British extradition request for Andrei Lugovoy on the grounds that the Russian constitution forbids the extradition of its citizens for alleged crimes committed abroad, Interfax reported Thursday. Lugovoy is wanted by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service for his alleged role in the poisoning-murder of [...]

Ali Khan : "In defending the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Pakistan government lawyers must argue that President Pervez Musharraf has properly exercised his executive power under Article 209(5). Assuming the President is authorized to refer the matter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the question remains whether the Executive order to send the [...]

A contentious draft Iraqi oil law approved Tuesday by Iraq's cabinet stalled on its way to parliament Wednesday after Sunni and Kurd politicians and Shiite lawmakers associated with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr objected to its terms and the process of pushing it forward for legislative approval. Critics pointed out that the draft had been approved [...]

A Malaysian judge Wednesday rejected a bid by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to sue former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for defamation in connection with renewed allegations that Anwar is a homosexual. Mahathir dismissed Anwar from office in 1998 in the midst of disagreements over financial policy and had him charged with corruption and [...]

Andrew Wood, Pitt Law '08, files from Manila: The Philippines is a fascinating place to spend the summer. The country is confronted with a constant and complex problem of migration, an issue that the government is struggling to solve. Well-educated Filipinos are flocking out of the country to seek better wages than they can find [...]

In his first statement to the UK House of Commons Tuesday, new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown laid out a series of proposed constitutional reforms he said were designed to make British government more accountable to the people. The changes, yet to be set out in formal legislation, include giving members of parliament the final [...]