Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday said that the country's constitution should be amended to allow the country to increase its military for national security purposes. Koizumi said that the country could not defend itself without an armed military force trained for war. Japan currently only maintains a 240,000-strong Self-Defense Force because Article 9 [...]

Human Rights and Responsibilities in the Age of Terror, Rt. Hon. Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia, Chancellor's Human Rights Lecture, University of Melbourne, November 29, 2005 . Read the full text of the lecture . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US Lieutenant-General Martin Dempsey said Wednesday that he thought Iraqi commanders were responsible for recent cases of detainee torture by Iraqi security forces. Dempsey, who oversees the US program to train security forces in Iraq , said he believed the recent cases of abuse were caused by a lack of leadership, rather than by individual [...]

The Supreme Court of Appeals of Turkey on Wednesday overturned the life sentence of Metin Kaplan , an Islamist cleric convicted on charges of plotting to fly an aircraft into the mausoleum of Turkey’s secular founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, on a national day of celebration in 1998. The court ordered a retrial because of deficiencies [...]

Former Hollinger International Inc. executives Jack Boultbee and Peter Atkinson failed to appear on Wednesday at the federal court in Chicago to be arraigned on fraud charges. Both Boultbee, who is charged with eight counts of fraud, and Atkinson, who faces six counts, are Canadian citizens. Assistant US Attorney Robert Kent said that prosecutors could [...]

US District Judge Inge P. Johnson of the Northern District of Alabama on Wednesday dismissed fraud charges against former HealthSouth Corp. CEO, Richard Scrushy because the charges were not specific. Johnson will allow prosecutors fifteen days to amend and refile the fraud counts, which have already been filed three times by the US Securities and [...]

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has promised to continue a state challenge to funding under the federal No Child Left Behind Act despite the dismissal of separate challenge to the law in Michigan. Connecticut is challenging the Act as an unfunded mandate on states, which is similar to a failed challenge made by the National [...]

US District Judge James R. Spencer of the Eastern District of Virginia Wednesday rejected the disputed settlement pact between the maker of the Blackberry communications device, Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) , and the patent owner of the technology behind the device, NTP, Inc. The $450 million settlement, which the companies agreed to in March, [...]

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Wednesday filed a legal challenge to a report issued by Justice John Gomery in a federal investigation into a sponsorship program that found Chretien responsible for abuses. In a motion filed in federal court on the final day of the appeals period, Chretien charged Gomery with bias in [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday delayed the transfer of Jose Padilla from a Navy brig in South Carolina to Justice Department custody until the court receives more information from the government and Padilla's lawyers. The 4th Circuit said that it needs more information before it orders the transfer because [...]