Wire services are reporting that final results of the October 15 Iraqi referendum announced in Baghdad Tuesday show that the draft Iraqi constitution has been approved. 7:49 AM ET – According to officials, two provinces voted "no", but in the closest third province, Nineveh, 44% of voters had endorsed the constitution. Two-thirds of voters in [...]

Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks , known as the "mother of the civil rights movement," died Monday evening at her home in Detroit. She was 92. Parks was best known for her arrest after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, when [...]

FBI documents on Patriot Act surveillance of US citizens, Electronic Privacy Information Center, October 24, 2005 . Read the full text of the documents released by EPIC here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Case here.

Human rights implications of the Anti-terrorism Bill 2005 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Prisoners in 2004, United States Department of Justice, October 24, 2005 . Read the full DOJ report here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday announced the first US extradition of an indicted criminal from Afghanistan. Baz Mohammad, designated a "foreign drug kingpin" under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act of 2005 on June 1 2005, was described by US DOJ officials as a "Taliban-linked narco-terrorist". According to an unsealed indictment filed in the US [...]

The UN Security Council announced Monday that it would implement UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recommendations and organize international discussions on whether Kosovo should be independent or remain a province of Serbia. Annan said last week that he was likely to appoint former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari as a special envoy to the UN in charge [...]

A senior Iraqi official told Reuters Monday that the trial of Saddam Hussein is unlikely to make significant headway before the December 15 parliamentary elections. "The hearing on November 28 – if it happens at all – won't last more than two or three hours before it's adjourned again until after the election, or indeed [...]

European Commission officials are preparing to warn Bulgaria and Romania that the 2007 scheduled entry of both countries into the European Union may be delayed until 2008 if both nations do not promptly act to address corruption and human rights violations, according a draft report obtained by Reuters. The report also calls for increased efforts [...]

A spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights said Monday that 565 prisoners would be released from Abu Ghraib prison before the Muslim religious holiday of Al-Fitr at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. This release follows an earlier release of more than 1500 prisoners at the beginning of Ramadan. More than 10,000 [...]