Former Iraq Deputy Health Minister Hakim Zamili and another top ministry official will be put on trial for allegedly assisting Shi'ite militias, the Iraqi government said Saturday. A spokesman said that the trial shows that the government Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is serious about enforcing the rule of law. In February, US and Iraqi forces [...]

Lawyers in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, went on strike Saturday in protest at President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. Members of the Karachi Bar Association and other local bar associations followed an earlier strike call from the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). Over 350 prisoners from all around the city [...]

The Zimbabwean government has introduced a draft bill meant to reform the country's election procedures, the state owned Harare Herald reported Saturday. The Electoral Laws Amendment Bill 2007 would combine presidential and legislative elections and allow candidates to demand vote recounts. The bill would also prohibit the military, police, and prison officers, from interfering with [...]

The Federation Council of Russia voted unanimously on Friday in favor of a measure that would suspend the nation's responsibilities under the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty . The Russian upper house's vote follows a unanimous vote in favor of suspending the CFE that occurred in the State Duma last week. The Russian government [...]

Over 10,000 protesters, most of them African-American, marched in front of the US Department of Justice building Friday to highlight what they claim are inadequate efforts to prosecute a spate of recent race-related crimes across the country. A focal point of the march was the prosecution of six black teenagers in Jena, Louisiana for beating [...]

Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc., et al., v. George W. Bush, President of the United States, et al., US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, November 16, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A US Marine invoked his right to defer his plea at his Friday military arraignment on charges stemming from the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November 2005. A lawyer for Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani did say that he planned to plead not guilty. Trial has been scheduled for April 28. Chessani [...]

The Georgian Republic ended its national state of emergency Friday, as promised earlier this week. On Wednesday, Georgian Speaker of Parliament Nino Burdzhanadze had announced in a televised statement on behalf of the government that emergency rule would be lifted Friday. A government spokesperson also announced Friday that Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli has resigned; [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Friday ruled that a defunct Muslim charity cannot use a document turned over to it by the US government as evidence that it was the subject of an illegal wiretap. The court held that a secret call log accidentally given to lawyers for the Al-Haramain Islamic [...]

Turkish lawmakers Friday moved to disband the country's leading pro-Kurdish political party and boot its representatives from parliament. Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya charged the Democratic Society Party with separatism after members gave speeches last week in support of autonomy for Kurds living in the country's southeast. The prosecutor's office will send an indictment to the [...]