Delegates from 68 countries wrapped up a three-day meeting in Lima, Peru Friday intended as a follow-up to the February Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions , where participants signed a declaration to ban cluster bombs by 2008. Organizers said the Lima meeting was a success, attracting 28 new countries which did not attend the Oslo [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled Friday that there exists no constitutional right to access legal services in Canada. The holding overturned two lower court decisions that had declared British Columbia's seven percent tax on legal fees unconstitutional because it made hiring a lawyer prohibitively expensive for low-income people. The case was originally brought [...]

A federal prosecutor said Friday that former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby should receive 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for blocking the investigation into the Valerie Plame CIA leak case . In papers filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia Friday, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wrote: Particularly [...]

Toronto Mayor David Miller Friday condemned a Wednesday shooting at a Toronto Ontario high school that left a 15-year-old student dead and called for a complete ban on handguns to prevent similar incidents in the future. Despite an increased police presence in the city to combat gang activity, Miller admitted the Canadian metropolis has so [...]

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer Friday vetoed a constitutional amendment that would have changed the country's election procedures to allow the president to be elected by direct vote rather than selected by parliamentarians. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) pushed through the amendment after opposition lawmakers, fearing that sole presidential candidate Abdullah Gul would [...]

UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith Friday rejected a Russian offer to try the suspected murderer of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in its own courts, calling for Andrei Lugovoy's extradition to the United Kingdom. The Russian government has refused to turn Lugovoy over to the UK, saying that the Russian constitution forbids it, but Russian [...]

The military government of Myanmar Friday extended the house arrest of pro-democracy advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for another year, rejecting calls for her release by both national and international human rights activists. The move, which forces Suu Kyi to remain in her home for a fifth straight year, [...]

Attorney General of British Columbia v. Dugald E. Christie, Supreme Court of Canada, May 25, 2007 . Read the full text of the judgment. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The European Commission said Friday that an independent advisory panel will investigate Internet search engine giant Google to determine whether it complies with EU privacy rules . The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party , which advises the commission on data protection and privacy, drafted a letter to Google questioning the company's policy of retaining [...]

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered Ukraine's interior ministry troops to come under his command Friday as a new crisis over Yushchenko's Thursday dismissal of the country's top prosecutor escalated, but Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych and Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko defied the move, calling it unconstitutional. Yushchenko said the decree was necessary "given yesterday's events in [...]