The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are investigating allegations that an army commander used Palestinians as human shields in the latest and highest-reaching probe into the banned practice, according to Israeli media reports Wednesday. Accused officer Brig. Gen. Yair Golan, commander of the West Bank army division and a potential candidate for military secretary under Prime [...]

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Wednesday ordered the dropping of all complaints previously lodged against approximately 200 journalists, opposition party members and pro-democracy activists who protested Monday against an emergency media ordinance. The protest took place in defiance of a government ban on unauthorized rallies issued by President Pervez Musharraf late last week, one day [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will fast-track its decision in a case concerning insurance companies' coverage of levee failure damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina , a judge said following oral arguments Wednesday. Judge Carolyn King , part of a panel of three judges who heard arguments in the case, [...]

The US Department of Defense (DOD) Wednesday announced the transfer of Abdullahi Sudi Arale, a suspected East Africa al Qaeda (EAAQ) courier captured in Somalia, to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay . Arale is accused of aiding various EAAQ-affiliated extremists in obtaining weapons and providing false documents to facilitate terrorists traveling to Somalia. DOD [...]

Zi Zhi Tang v. Alberto R. Gonzales, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, June 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The family of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Musa , who died while in British military custody in 2003, plans to sue the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) , according to a family lawyer Wednesday. Solicitor Martyn Day told Reuters that the move was necessary following the dismissal earlier this year against the seven soldiers believed [...]

Carla Del Ponte , top prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) praised last week's arrest and extradition of war crimes suspect Zdravko Tolimir Wednesday, but reiterated that Serbia must arrest and extradite war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic . Five of the 161 suspects indicted by the ICTY remain fugitives, including [...]

The government of Ethiopia charged 55 people affiliated with the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) Tuesday with plotting to overthrow the government following Ethiopia's 2005 election . The CUD has previously accused Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of stealing the election by voter fraud . Another 129 lawmakers, journalists, and human rights activists are [...]

An Iranian judge said Wednesday that two detained Iranian-Americans had admitted to carrying out some "activities," but it is not clear if this is tantamount to admission of spying. In an interview with Iran's ISNA news agency , Judge Hossein Haddad, security deputy of Tehran's public and revolutionary court, said that Dr. Haleh Esfandiari and [...]

A court in Mauritania acquitted 24 defendants on trial for assorted crimes under anti-terror laws Tuesday, finding that confessions and testimonies obtained from the suspects were inadmissible because they were obtained through torture. Only one defendant, who was tried in absentia following his escape, was convicted and sentenced to two-years in prison and fined $340 [...]