The trial of 129 lawmakers, journalists and human rights activists on treason charges opened Friday in Ethiopia. The charges relate to mass demonstrations in the wake of Ethiopia’s May 2005 elections; the 129 defendants were arrested after street protests in July and November . The opposition Coalition of Unity and Democracy (CUD) claims that Prime [...]

The US Department of Justice insisted in a court filing Friday that the information the search engine data government is seeking from Google as part of its effort to revive the Child Online Protection Act would not be traceable to specific users. Google had previously refused to comply with a subpoena to hand over internet [...]

The Utah Supreme Court Friday ruled to remove a polygamist judge from the bench, explaining that Hildale Justice Court Judge Walter Steed clearly broke the law by being married to three women at once. Steed worked as a part-time justice court judge since 1980 in the border town of Hildale, a polygamous town. The high [...]

Police in Manila Saturday raided the offices of the Manila Daily Tribune and detained several high-profile critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines a day after she declared a state of emergency in order to stop an alleged coup against her government. Since her declaration, Arroyo has banned rallies in the country, but hundreds [...]

A Nigerian court in the southern city of Port Harcourt Friday ordered Royal Dutch Shell to pay $1.5 billion to compensate local communities for environmental pollution caused by the company's activities in the southern Niger delta region, the focus of long criticism by environment and rights groups. Shell's oil production activities make up nearly half [...]

US District Judge Reggie B. Walton Friday granted defense attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby access to Libby's personal handwritten notes taken over a nine-month period around the time that the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame was first published in the media. Libby's defense team plans to use the notes to support Libby's [...]

In a speech Friday in Cleveland, US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Mark Everson said that the IRS had found a sharp increase in prohibited political activity by 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charities, including some churches, during the 2004 election cycle. According to an IRS study , three quarters of 82 charitable organizations examined engaged in some [...]

HB 1215, State of South Dakota, passed by the South Dakota House of Representatives February 24, 2006 . Excerpt: No person may knowingly administer to, prescribe for, or procure for, or sell to any pregnant woman any medicine, drug, or other substance with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life [...]

Proclamation No. 1017, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President, Republic of the Philippines, February 24, 2006 . Read the full text of the proclamation. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, Decision on Assigned Counsel Request for Provisional Release, Trial Chamber, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, February 24, 2006 . Read the full text of the decision. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.