US government secrecy increased in 2006, according to the Secrecy Report Card 2007 released over the weekend by OpenTheGovernment.org . The report cited an increased reliance on national security letters (NSL) and more frequent assertions of the state secrets privilege. The fourth-annual report also examined other indicators of secrecy in the federal government such as [...]

Secrecy Report Card 2007, OpenTheGovernment.org, September 1, 2007 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A Moscow District Court on Tuesday upheld the legality of the city's ban on gay pride parades , ruling that the city's 2007 prohibition against the Moscow Pride event was legal under Russian law and the European Convention on Human Rights because the government can prohibit events to ensure public security and prevent public disturbances. [...]

Indonesian prosecutors announced Tuesday the breakdown of court-ordered settlement negotiations with lawyers representing former Indonesian President Haji Mohammad Suharto . Prosecutors will instead proceed in court with the government's civil lawsuit against Suharto for allegedly embezzling $440 million between 1974 and 1998 from the Yayasan Supersemar, a state-funded academic scholar fund. Indonesian law requires that [...]

Six foreign judges on Fiji's Court of Appeal submitted their resignations Monday, accusing the military government-appointed chief justice Anthony Gates of interfering with the court's functions by not consulting the judges about their availability when arranging sittings. The judges, from Australia and New Zealand, said it was apparent that their services were no longer wanted. [...]

The Appeals Chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal on Tuesday upheld the death sentences of three defendants convicted for their roles in the slaughter of ten of thousands of Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign . The defendants, including Saddam Hussein's cousin and former Iraqi defense minister Ali Hassan al-Majid , will be executed within [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday released new documents describing crimes committed by US soldiers against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan which show a pattern of US troops failing to follow the laws of interrogations and deadly actions, but also a pattern of troops believing they were in fact following the law in [...]

Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounced US immigration policies during his first state of the union address Sunday, promising to fight for the rights of Mexicans living in the US and protesting the "unilateral measures" taken by the US to make "the persecution and humiliating treatment of undocumented Mexican workers worse." Calderon added that Mexican workers [...]

The Supreme Court of Israel Tuesday ordered the Israeli government to redraw the route of its West Bank security barrier near the Palestinian village of Bilin within a "reasonable period." Bilin residents had challenged the construction of the wall on the grounds that the barrier's planned route of the barrier prevented some Bilin residents from [...]

A Cambodian cabinet minister has said that the Cambodian government could "terminate" the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) if it "illegally" attempts to charge former King Norodom Sihanouk with crimes committed during the Communist Khmer Rouge's control of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975-79, according to Cambodia Daily Monday. Sihanouk was the symbolic head [...]