A UN human rights official has called for an investigation into the killings of two defense lawyers representing co-defendants of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein . The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said an independent investigation was needed because the murders had major implications for the Saddam Hussein trial [...]

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said Thursday that reports of abuse of detainees by Iraqi security forces were exaggerated. Jabr said that only five people discovered at a prison in an Interior Ministry building were malnourished, and that many of those detained were suspected terrorists. Jabr said an investigation had begun into allegations of torture. [...]

A court created by Sudan to try war-crimes suspects for atrocities committed in the Darfur region of the country has sentenced two soldiers to death for the killing of a Sudanese citizen. The court issued the sentences, the first since it was established, on Wednesday. The two soldiers were convicted of torturing and killing the [...]

An American businessman has been charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to US authorities in charge of the reconstruction in Iraq to obtain millions in contracts, the New York Times reported Thursday. According to the criminal complaint, which was unsealed Wednesday, Philip H. Bloom used bribes to win $3.5 million in [...]

US District Judge Rosemary Collyer on Wednesday held Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus in contempt after he failed to reveal confidential sources from a story he reported about an investigation into nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee . Lee is seeking the identities of Pincus' sources and the sources of four other reporters in a civil [...]

Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, Inc., et al. v. Jeremiah M. Nixon, Attorney General of Missouri, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, November 16, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Italian Senate on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that grants increased powers to both the prime minister and to regional governments within Italy . Legislators approved the changes by a 170-132 vote, bringing to a close months of vigorous debate on the issue that at times threatened to break up the ruling coalition of [...]

Letter supporting House legislation to split up the largest federal appeals court in the US, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which currently covers 54 million people and has 28 judgeships; US Department of Justice, November 14, 2005. Read the full text of the letter . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Congressional Republicans on Wednesday said they planned to move forward with the Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005 , legislation aimed at speeding up executions in the US by limiting the number of appeals that can be made by defendants. Sen. Arlen Specter said he planned to bring the bill up for a vote in the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday upheld a narrower version of a preliminary injunction imposed against Missouri's 24-hour informed consent abortion law . In a 2-1 decision , the court ordered the district court to issue a modified injunction that did not cover a basic consent process already upheld by [...]