Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has sued anti-government activist Sondhi Limthongkul and 11 others for defamation and $26 million in damages, according to Thaksin's lawyer Monday. Thaksin sued Sondhi and the state-run Communications Authority of Thailand for allegedly saying on television that Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai party tried to undermine Thailand's monarchy. Sondhi [...]

Indian authorities on Sunday arrested a fourth suspect in the July 11 Mumbai train bombings that killed over 180 people . Authorities arrested Dr. Tanyir Ansari late Sunday after several days of questioning in connection to the bombings. The Press Trust of India reports that Ansari is an alleged operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba , a [...]

Report, Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine, American Bar Association, July 24, 2006 . Excerpt: Among those unanimous recommendations, the Task Force voted to: oppose, as contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers, a President's issuance of signing statements to claim the [...]

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday that weekend statements by visiting United Nations relief coordinator Jan Egeland that damage caused by Israeli airstrikes in Beirut was excessive and in violation of international humanitarian law conflicted with those of other UN bodies. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor rejected what he called Egeland's "very harsh terms" [...]

Jordan is a "central hub in a global complex of secret detention centers" allegedly operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency and foreign intelligence agencies, according to an Amnesty International report written by Malcolm Smart, the director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa unit. The report identifies at least 10 suspected cases of alleged [...]

US House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) told Fox News Sunday over the weekend that he might challenge a July 10 federal court order allowing the FBI to view documents seized in the congressional office raid of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) in May. Chief Judge Thomas Hogan ruled earlier this month that the FBI [...]

US Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) promised Sunday that US United Nations Ambassador John Bolton would face a difficult fight in his upcoming Senate confirmation hearing. Last summer, President Bush bypassed the Senate confirmation process and appointed Bolton during the Senate's summer recess , despite Senate Democrat opposition that had stalled debate on Bolton's confirmation . [...]

The Saddam Hussein trial resumed in Baghdad on Monday, though the former Iraqi leader was not in court due to his weekend hospitalization after collapsing in jail on the sixteenth day of his hunger strike protesting trial court procedures and a lack of adequate security for defense lawyers. Defense closing arguments were scheduled to continue [...]

An American Bar Association Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine has determined that President Bush's practice of attaching signing statements to new laws "undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers." In a report and recommendations to be released Monday, the task force found [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Lynn Wardle of J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University says that the 2006 House and Senate votes on the Federal Marriage Protection Amendment may not have been sufficient to send the amendment to the states for ratification, but they do show that the movement to protect marriage as [...]