Serge Brammertz , the deputy prosecutor for investigations at the International Criminal Court, resigned on June 14, according to a Tuesday announcement from the International Criminal Court . Brammertz will continue to head the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC), which is currently investigating the February 2005 Rafik Hariri assassination and the more recent bombing [...]

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Tuesday that Poland plans to appeal a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that found Poland in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights for prohibiting a pregnant woman who had a serious risk of vision loss if she carried the pregnancy [...]

Members of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence expressed reservations Tuesday about the nomination of John Rizzo as CIA general counsel, questioning the career CIA-lawyer's decision to sign off on the controversial 2002 "Bybee Memo" in which the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) defined torture as physical pain equivalent in "in [...]

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian is proceeding with plans to hold a largely symbolic national referendum on whether Taiwan should attempt rejoining the United Nations (UN) under the name of Taiwan, despite opposition from China, the United States, and members of the opposition party, presidential spokesperson David Lee said Wednesday. The proposal, which will require a [...]

Republicans introduced the Secure Borders FIRST (For Integrity, Reform, Safety and anti-Terrorism) Act to the US House of Representatives Tuesday as a challenge to the White House-sponsored immigration proposal. The bill declares English the nation's official language, requires background checks on all workers, bars all current illegal immigrants from gaining legal status, and calls for [...]

The US Department of Defense announced Tuesday that six detainees have been transferred from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and into the custody of other home countries. Two of the transfers were to Tunisia and the four other detainees were transferred to Yemen. The detainees became eligible for transfer from the US military prison [...]

The Somalia transitional government offered amnesty Tuesday to the former Islamic extremist group that controlled the capital of Mogadishu last year. The declaration was announced hours after an assassination attempt against presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mahamud "Hubsired." The government announced that the move was intended to foster a sense of good will before its scheduled [...]

The Supreme Court of Kuwait Tuesday affirmed death sentences for two of six Islamist militants convicted in 2005 for their involvement in a clash with police that left several people dead, but commuted the other four to life in prison. The men, members of an al Qaeda linked group called the Peninsula Lions , were [...]

Statement on the prison population delivered to UK House of Lords, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, June 19, 2007 . The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Lord Falconer of Thoroton): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now make a Statement on the prison population. The [...]

The UK justice minister told the House of Lords Tuesday that he has given authority to prison governors to "release on licence for offenders who are coming to the end of their sentence" as a way to relieve overcrowding of prisons across England and Wales. Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Lord Falconer [...]