The Constitutional Council of France Thursday approved a controversial amendment to an immigration law that would allow voluntary DNA testing to establish family ties between recent immigrants and relatives already living in France. The Council also rejected an amendment that would have allowed for the collection of ethnic data to promote diversity. The French Parliament [...]

An official with Russia's Union of Right Forces (SPS) told a news conference Thursday that the opposition political party had filed a lawsuit with the country's Supreme Court requesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin not be allowed to run as a candidate in the country's upcoming parliamentary elections. Putin currently appears at the top of [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit threw out planned federal fuel economy standards for light trucks and SUVs Thursday, ruling that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) did not adequately consider the environmental impact of the proposed standards. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by several states and environmental groups, [...]

The Tianhe District Court in China convicted lawyer and dissident writer Yang Maodong of conducting "illegal business activity" and sentenced him to serve five years in prison and pay more than $5,000 in fines, according to his lawyer. Yang's trial began in July on charges stemming from his publication of a book concerning a political [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of Florida death row inmate Mark Dean Schwab "pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari." Schwab was scheduled to be executed at 6 PM ET on Thursday. The stay will terminate automatically if Schwab's petition for certiorari is denied. [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told reporters at the end of a five-day visit to Myanmar Thursday that he was able to meet with a number of prominent political prisoners, but that his request to meet with opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was denied by the ruling [...]

A British court ruled Thursday that the radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri can be extradited to the United States on charges of supporting terrorism. Abu Hamza, who is currently serving a seven-year sentence in the UK for urging his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims, faces US charges of attempting to establish terrorist [...]

The US Justice Department has not yet made a decision on whether it will file criminal charges against Blackwater USA employees involved in the killings of 14 Iraqi civilians during a September 16 incident that took place in West Baghdad, a DOJ spokesperson said Wednesday. The comments came in response to reports from the New [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a per curiam opinion on Thursday overturning a district court order to stay the execution of Florida death row inmate Mark Dean Schwab . The federal district court blocked Schwab's execution on Wednesday pending the US Supreme Court's decision in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) , [...]

Center for Biological Diversity v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, November 15, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.