France signed an extradition treaty with China Tuesday in Paris over the objections of human rights groups that oppose China's use of the death penalty. After signing the treaty, Justice Minister Pascal Clement explained that France may refuse extradition of suspects to China for political or military offenses. If a crime is punishable by death [...]

The editor of a website in China that called for political reform has been sentenced to six years in prison by the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province for defaming the government. Zhang Jianhong wrote some 60 critical articles on Aiqinghai.net and other websites before the government shut down the site in March 2006. [...]

A defense lawyer for German Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel has been charged with incitement, attempting to thwart a prosecution, and using banned Nazi symbols during the original trial of Zundel in 2005. According to prosecutors at the Mannheim State Court , Sylvia Stolz repeatedly denied the Holocaust during Zundel's trial, described Jews as "enemy people" and [...]

Baltasar Garzon , an investigating judge for Spain's National Court , said Tuesday that President George W. Bush and his allies eventually should face war crimes charges for their actions in Iraq. In an opinion piece for El Pais, Garzon called the war in Iraq "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent [...]

US Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine told the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Tuesday that the confusion and abuses surrounding the use of National Security Letters (NSL) was "unacceptable and inexcusable." The Federal Bureau of Investigation illegally gathered data from telephone and financial records of both US citizens and foreigners while [...]

The UK Department of Education and Skills issued school uniform guidelines Tuesday that allow schools to ban students from wearing Muslim veils if teachers believe the garments can affect safety or a student's learning. Minister for Schools Jim Knight noted that "uniforms can help to develop the right mindset among pupils" and that schools should [...]

Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr said in an interview published Monday that he will be unable to identify the alleged CIA kidnappers who he says abducted him from Italy in 2003 because they wore face masks. He said he would like to serve as a witness if and when the case goes to trial, [...]

The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals withdrew class action status Tuesday from Enron shareholders who filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit in October 2001. US District Judge Melinda Harmon certified the class in June 2006, but defendants Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse Group appealed to the Fifth Circuit, alleging the certification should be thrown out [...]

The US Senate voted Tuesday to limit the power of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to name interim US attorneys, passing the Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007 by a vote of 94-2 . The vote came amid increasing pressure on Gonzales to resign after the recent firings of eight federal prosecutors, which have [...]

One of Pakistan's three deputy attorneys general resigned Tuesday, telling Reuters that the crisis over President Pervez Musharraf's March 9 suspension of Chief Justice Iktikhar Chaudhry for unspecified "misconduct" had made it "very difficult for me to perform my duties." The move by Nasir Saeed Sheikh follows the resignation of seven Pakistani judges earlier this [...]