The Iraqi Interior Ministry is proposing draft legislation to be submitted to the Iraqi parliament that places private security contractors under Iraqi legal jurisdiction, a ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. The legislation, drafted in response to the domestic outrage at a September 16 incident in which Blackwater USA contractors allegedly killed 11 unarmed civilians, will overturn [...]

The Bush administration expressed concern Monday about recent "setbacks on press freedom and civil society" in Egypt. Commenting on a recent Egyptian government order mandating the closure of the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid , White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said : These latest decisions appear to contradict the Egyptian Government's stated commitment [...]

The Thai Supreme Court for Political Appointees suspended proceedings Tuesday against former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra until he and his wife, Pojamarn, are arrested and brought into court for proceedings. Thaksin has been living in the United Kingdom since the bloodless military coup that ousted him from power last year. In making the decision [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday that foreign prisoners do not have a cause of action under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations if police do not inform the inmate of their right under the treaty to call the inmate's home country embassy following arrest. Finding that the Vienna Convention [...]

Ali Khan : Lee C. Bollinger is what you may call crème de la crème. His credentials as a law professor, a legal scholar of the First Amendment, the former dean of the University of Michigan Law School, and now the President of Columbia University have been incredible. With these many feathers in his cap, [...]

The US Court of Military Commission Review Monday reinstated terrorism charges against Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr . In June, a military commission judge dropped charges against Khadr, ruling that the court had no jurisdiction because a Guantanamo Combatant Status Review Tribunal had found that Khadr was an "enemy combatant," not an "unlawful enemy combatant" [...]

The Israeli Attorney General announced Monday that he was opening an investigation into a real estate purchase made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert . The criminal probe centers on a Jerusalem apartment for which Olmert paid the value of 320,000 American dollars. Olmert is accused of receiving the apartment at a substantially reduced price [...]

South African President Thabo Mbeki suspended National Prosecuting Authority chief Vusi Pikoli Monday, citing a strained relationship between Pikoli and his superior, Minister of Justice Bridget Mabandla , as the primary motive for the suspension. Pikoli was appointed to lead an elite corruption fighting agency in 2005, but last May complained before parliament of attacks [...]

Former Argentinean military officer Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro has been sentenced in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to six months in jail for one count of visa fraud, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Monday. According to ICE, he will likely be deported to Argentina when his US sentence is [...]

Indonesian prosecutors began court proceedings Monday against former Indonesian President Haji Mohammad Suharto , bringing the government's civil corruption lawsuit against Suharto for allegedly embezzling $440 million between 1974 and 1998 from the Yayasan Supersemar , a state-funded academic scholarship fund. The court proceedings began after prosecutors for the government failed to reach a settlement [...]