The ruling party of Zimbabwe Thursday announced that it has proposed changes to a bill currently before parliament to amend the Zimbabwean constitution . The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) said that Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa presented a report to the politburo on the proposed changes, but it did not elaborate on [...]

The New Jersey Supreme Court dismissed a class action lawsuit filed against pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Thursday, reversing a lower court's decision to grant nationwide class certification in the case. The lawsuit, filed by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 68 Welfare Fund on behalf of various insurers and health-maintenance organizations, was one [...]

Issuing National Security Letters (NSLs) demanding private information and imposing gag orders on recipients under the reauthorized and revised USA Patriot Act is unconstitutional without judicial review, US District Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern District of New York ruled Thursday. In September 2004, a federal judge struck down as unreasonable search and seizure the [...]

"Indiscriminate airstrikes" by Israel were responsible for the majority of civilian casualties during the summer 2006 Lebanon conflict , according to a 249-page report issued Thursday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) . HRW investigated about 500 of the reported 900 civilian deaths. Its report specifically refutes Israeli assertions that civilian casualties were due to Hezbollah [...]

Fiji's military commander and self-declared interim Prime Minister Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama announced in a radio broadcast Thursday that a state of emergency will be imposed in Fiji for the next month. Bainimarama said the emergency measures will not have a major effect on citizens and were enacted in response to the return of exiled former [...]

The US Department of Defense said Thursday that 16 Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to their home country of Saudi Arabia . Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz welcomed the release of detainees, and said he was hopeful that all Saudi detainees currently in custody at Guantanamo Bay would be returned to the [...]

A South Korean appeals court Thursday suspended the prison sentence of Chung Mong-koo , chairman of Hyundai Motors Group , for five years, saying imprisoning him for embezzlement and bribery would be too risky for the nation's economy. Chung was convicted in February and sentenced to three years in prison for embezzling more than $100 [...]

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday filed an appeal of last month's US District Court decision ruling that a 2005 law banning the sale of violent video games to minors was unconstitutional . Schwarzenegger said that he supported the law because "many studies show the link between playing ultra-violent video games and violent behavior." District Judge [...]

The National Security Archive filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Executive Office of the President and other presidential affiliates to compel recovery of 5 million electronic messages that apparently went missing from White House computers between March 2003 and October 2005. The missing e-mails became the subject of controversy during the investigation of the leaking [...]

John Doe, American Civil Liberties Union, and American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, v. Alberto Gonzales, Robert Mueller, et al., US District Court for the Southern District of New York, September 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.