The Iraqi National Assembly Wednesday approved a measure that outlines how federalism could be implemented to divide Iraq into separate regions. The law is backed by Shiite majority leaders, but opposed by Sunnis who fear that splitting areas of Iraq would cause a civil war by increasing the sectarian and ethnic violence already troubling the [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Wednesday denied a request by the Croatian government to intervene as amicus curiae in the trial of six former political and military Bosnian Croat leaders who are accused of torturing, killing, imprisoning, and expelling Muslims in Bosnia during 1991-94. The Croatian government had sought permission to [...]

The Law Lords , the judicial panel of the UK House of Lords that is Britain's highest court, ruled Wednesday that media in Britain should not be subject to libel charges if they publish allegations against public figures as long as they act responsibly and in the public interest. The case was an appeal brought [...]

Thai Defense Minister Boonrawd Somtas said Wednesday that Thailand will remain under martial law for at least a month as a safeguard against political turmoil, while Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, who led the Sept. 19 bloodless coup , defended martial law as unintrusive on the daily lives of Thai citizens. The comments from the military follow [...]

A South Carolina Senate committee is contemplating state immigration reform laws that would regulate the hiring practices of businesses who contract with the state, state Sen. Jim Ritchie said Tuesday. The committee is considering a mandatory program for state agencies, their contractors, and subcontractors where the citizenship of all employees would be checked through a [...]

The US House Ethics Committee will hold hearings Thursday on the Mark Foley scandal . Former Foley chief of staff Kirk Fordham is set to testify about when he notified the staff of US House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) about Foley's inappropriate behavior. Fordham has maintained he notified Hastert in either 2002 or 2003, while [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Don Rothwell of ANU College of Law, Australian National University, says that while passage of the new Military Commissions Act in the United States presents new challenges for Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, it also creates an opportunity for the Australian government to reconsider its erstwhile refusal to press for the protection [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a $10,000 fine levied by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against a US man who willfully violated the 1990-2003 international embargo against Iraq to deliver medicine and other humanitarian supplies. Bertram Sacks sued OFAC , challenging the OFAC's ability to [...]

A new child labor law , which criminalizes the hiring of children under the age of 14 as house servants or restaurant workers , took effect in India on Tuesday. Offending employers are eligible for a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $217 fine. Proponents of the law say it will encourage [...]

Nigerian Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was charged Tuesday with more than a dozen counts of corruption. The charges filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, a special corruption court that has the power to strip elected officials of immunity, were related to the alleged diversion of $125 million dollars of public money to private interests, as [...]