The trial of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye on charges of treason and rape is set to begin on December 19. Besigye has been denied bail as he faces separate charges of terrorism and illegal possession of firearms before a military court. His lawyers have argued that the military has no jurisdiction over civilians and [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center says that repeated protestations from President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other US administration officials that "we do not torture" miss the point that the US has by any meaningful standard engaged in illegal cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners [...]

The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry said late Sunday that 13 prisoners in an overcrowded facility run by the Iraqi Interior Ministry were abuse victims who required medical treatment. The detainees have been transferred to a hospital and are under guard. The Ministry also said that an investigating judge has ordered the immediate release of 56 [...]

Slobodan Milosevic Monday asked judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to let him visit a Moscow clinic for medical examinations during the court's winter recess. Milosevic suffers from high blood pressure and a heart condition and earlier this month was granted a limited adjournment after for health reasons. The former Yugoslav [...]

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday in a BBC radio interview that the UK has found no evidence that the US transported terror detainees via UK airports, despite a UK newspaper report last week alleging that CIA-owned or operated planes made 210 "ghost flights" to transport terror suspects through nearly 20 different UK facilities. [...]

In a 6-0 vote, the California Supreme Court late Sunday refused to halt the execution of co-founder Crips gang co-founder and convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams . Williams was convicted of killing four people during two 1979 robberies and is due to be executed early on December 13. The Court refused an earlier clemency request [...]

Leading Monday's international brief, Human Rights Watch has called on the UN Security Council to sanction Sudanese President Omar El Bashir and other senior Sudanese government officials for complicity in crimes against humanity. In a new report on the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, the New York-based monitoring group alleges that the Sudanese [...]

A deadlocked federal jury in a Texas Vioxx case will resume its deliberations Monday after informing US District Judge Eldon Fallon on Saturday that it could not reach a unanimous verdict about whether Merck & Co.’s Vioxx painkiller caused Richard Irvin’s heart attack and subsequent death. Fallon asked the jurors to continue, reminding them of [...]

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday in an interview on Fox News Sunday that would support changing Senate procedures to ban judicial filibusters if Democrats attempt to use the device to block the US Supreme Coourt nomination of Samuel Alito . “Supreme Court justice nominees deserve an up-or-down vote, and it would be absolutely [...]

The Iraqi government announced Sunday that it will enforce strict security measures for Thursday's parliamentary elections, including closing all borders, extending curfews and banning travel across provincial boundaries from Tuesday through Saturday. Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces and the Iraqi government released 238 detainees from Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca Sunday, bringing the number to well [...]