At a conference in New Delhi Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) launched a new code of Customary International Humanitarian Law setting down universal and customary rules of combat for internal and international warfare. Originally published in March 2005, the three-volume code lists 161 general rules of combat followed by "civilized states," [...]

Germany's new foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier Saturday denied allegations that German officials may have aided the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the December 2003 abduction of German citizen Khaled El-Masri , who has filed a lawsuit charging the US with wrongful imprisonment . An anonymous source cited in a German newspaper article Friday [...]

The US said Friday that it would not allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to a limited number of detainees who are held in secret locations around the world. It is the first time the US has admitted that it has not given the Red Cross access to all US detainees. [...]

The US Department of Defense announced Friday that it has extended an invitation to special representative Anne-Marie Lizin of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to visit the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba. Pentagon officials said Lizin, who has openly opposed the operation of the facility, would be permitted [...]

At the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which ended Saturday in Montreal, states party to the Kyoto Protocol agreed to extend the life of the Protocol and begin a new dialogue with the US. Members agreed to start talks regarding emission cuts beyond 2012, the expiration date of the current commitment. In agreeing [...]

The US government urged the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in court papers filed Friday to withdraw its September 9, 2005 opinion which denied the habeas petition of Jose Padilla , the American "dirty bomb" suspect, and allowed the government to hold Padilla indefinitely as an "enemy combatant" without charging him with a crime. [...]

UN Under-Secretary-General Jan Egeland , the UN humanitarian relief coordinator, told the UN Security Council Friday not to weaken a proposed resolution on protecting civilians in war zones, reminding delegations of the 26 million people forced from their homes due to violence in Northern Uganda, Sudan, and the Ivory Coast. The resolution could be the [...]

The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, Decision on Assigned Counsel Application for Interview and Testimony of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, December 9, 2005. Read the full text of the decision. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark , currently a defense lawyer for Saddam Hussein , Friday accused witnesses of false testimony, claiming they had read their testimonies from pre-written statements. Only two of the nine witnesses that have testified thus far have stood in open court, while the rest have testified from behind a curtain [...]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday that it is in “intense dialogue” with US authorities to visit all detainees held by the US in the war on terror. The US State Department confirmed Thursday that the ICRC does not have access to all detainees, although it is allowed to visit everyone [...]