Leading Tuesday's international brief, South Korea has nominated its Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as a candidate for the office of the UN Secretary-General . The office, currently held by Kofi Annan is up for election in the second half of 2006 and its holder is determined by a majority vote of the General Assembly based [...]

The Constitutional Court of Thailand on Tuesday agreed to consider a petition to impeach Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on suspicion that he illegally held shares in the Shin Corporation , a telecommunications giant that he founded. The court secretary-general said that a decision will be made Thursday on whether to accept the case. The petition [...]

Saddam Hussein on Tuesday told the Iraqi High Criminal Court – formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal – that he was on hunger strike in protest at the way chief judge Ra'uf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman has been treating Hussein and his co-defendants. Abdel-Rahman began presiding over the trial last month after his predecessor resigned amid criticism that [...]

Just one month after New Orleans courts began preparations to resume trials , two New Orleans judges said that criminal courts may have to release as many as 4,000 indigent defendants, many of whom stand accused of felonies, due to lack of funding and resources to hire public defenders. Judges Calvin Johnson and Arthur Hunter [...]

US District Judge Ricardo Urbina on Monday issued a preliminary injunction preventing the US military from turning over US citizen and suspected terrorist Shawqi Omar to Iraqi officials. Omar, who the US describes as a close associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , was arrested in Baghdad in October 2004 after he was caught harboring an [...]

The controversial Identity Cards Bill narrowly passed its critical second reading in the British House of Commons Monday evening despite efforts by opposition parties and rebellious backbenchers from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's own Labour Party to stop it. In two years, anyone applying for travel or immigration documents in the United Kingdom will be [...]

As part of its probe into allegations that the CIA ran secret prisons in EU member countries, a committee of the European Parliament Monday outlined an investigation plan and reviewed a list of people it might want to question. Possible witnesses include senior members of the US administration, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , Secretary [...]

Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Bill 2006, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, February 13, 2006 . Read the full text of the bill. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force: A Progress Report to the Attorney General, February 13, 2006 . Excerpt: Since the establishment of the Task Force in September 2005, 23 United States Attorneys across the country have charged 212 people with various hurricane fraud-related crimes, including charity fraud, benefit fraud and political corruption, and have obtained 40 [...]

The American Bar Association called on President Bush Monday to stop warrantless domestic surveillance or change the laws to make it legal. At the Association's midyear meeting in Chicago the ABA's policy-setting House of Delegates voted on several policy proposals set out in the report of a special ABA task force set up to investigate [...]