The ruling military junta in Myanmar has closed constitutional talks until late 2006, delegates said Tuesday. The convention to draft a constitution has been held intermittently since 1993, and is the first step on a seven-stage road map aimed at unification, democracy, and free elections for the country. There has been speculation as to when [...]

The California Senate has approved legislation banning state agencies' production of news releases designed to look like objective reports. Senators approved SB 740 by a 21-11 vote. The legislation mirrors a court ruling made last month in which a Superior Court judge ruled that the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had to remove state-produced news [...]

Afghan Judge Abul Basit Bakhitari has postponed the trial of Assadullah Sarwari for twenty days so that he may hire a lawyer. Sarwari, the former director of Afghanistan's intelligence service, faces charges stemming from his operation under the country's Soviet-supported communist regime in 1979, where he allegedly killed and tortured regime opponents. Sarwari claims that [...]

The US Senate has approved the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to serve as an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court by a vote of 58-42 . Alito will replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced her retirement last July. 12:08 PM ET – Alito will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts [...]

Human Rights Watch criticized Uzbek officials for blocking access to the trial of rights activist Mutabar Tojiboeva , in a statement issued Tuesday. Uzbek police have blocked off the court building and set up checkpoints on the roads leading into the town where the trial is taking place. Tojiboeva openly criticized the Uzbekistan government for [...]

Australian anti-terror laws force courts to close off too much information to the public and prevent fair trials, a group of media organizations argued Tuesday before the New South Wales Supreme Court in the first constitutional challenge to the federal government's anti-terrorism laws. According to a lawyer for the media groups, the National Security Information [...]

Defense lawyers for Saddam Hussein have vowed to continue a boycott of the former Iraqi leader's trial unless the judge presiding over the trial is removed, one of the defense lawyers said Tuesday. Saleh al-Armuti, one of four defense lawyers representing Hussein, challenged the authority of newly-appointed chief judge Ra'uf Rasheed Abdel Rahman and said [...]

State officials and politicians in Georgia have indicated that there are no immediate plans to add death penalty reform to the legislative agenda, despite the highly critical Georgia Death Penalty Assessment Report released Monday by the American Bar Association (ABA) . The assessment pointed out several flaws in the current system and recommended a moratorium [...]

A suspected mastermind of the 2004 Madrid bombings appeared in an Italian court Tuesday for an initial hearing as his trial on terror charges begins. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed , along with an alleged accomplice, faces charges of subversive association aimed at international terrorism, a new charge introduced in Italy following the Sept. 11 terror [...]

Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran , said Tuesday that there is no legal basis for efforts to refer Iran to the UN Security Council . In an interview with the semi-official ISNA , Aghazadeh said that the five permanent members of the Security Council, who agreed Tuesday that the International [...]