The family of Brazilian citizen Jean Charles de Menezes, mistakenly killed by police who thought they were pursuing a July 21 London bombing suspect, called Wednesday for a public investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting. The family also wants the shooters charged with murder and have called for the resignation of London Metropolitan Police [...]

Indian law minister H.R. Bharadwaj said Wednesday that the country’s 130 million Muslims must choose whether to abide by fatwas issued by Islamic family courts. The comments came in the wake of a petition filed by lawyer Vishwa Lochan Madan calling for the Supreme Court of India to demand the elimination of all Islamic courts [...]

Pakistani police on Wednesday charged militant Mohammad Hashim Qadir in connection with the 2002 kidnapping and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl . Qadir was picked up last month for involvement in the killing of a man on June 5, and was later questioned for his alleged role in the Pearl case. He is believed [...]

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, denounced Tuesday the "radical" views of US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and claimed that Roberts worked to reverse "decades of policies on civil rights, voting rights, women’s rights, privacy, and access to justice." Leahy's remarks came one day after the release of [...]

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan , in a report to the UN Security Council, has accused Sudanese rebels of taking part in kidnappings, extortions and thefts, causing the already unstable Darfur region to become even more lawless. Annan said that currently more than 3 million people were in need of humanitarian aid and another 2 million [...]

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday authorized death sentences for three Iraqi men convicted of murder, paving the way for the first legal executions in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Talabani, who has opposed capital punishment in the past , said he had instructed Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi to approve the hangings. [...]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has said that North Korea would consider returning to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the US stops threatening the country, a Russian envoy who recently met with Kim said Wednesday. Russian presidential envoy Konstantin Pulikovsky met with Kim several times this week and in an interview with a Russian [...]

An Italian court Wednesday ordered that Ethiopian-born Hamdi Issac, a suspect in the failed July 21 London transport attacks , be extradited to Britain within 35 days. The three judge panel allowed the 35-day delay so that Italian authorities could complete their investigation into Issac's activities. Issac, who has admitted his participation in the attacks, [...]

A lawyer in Luxembourg filed suit Tuesday challenging the country's July 10th referendum approving the European Constitution . Lawyer Roy Reding claims the government violated Luxembourg's constitution by providing public funding to support a "yes" vote for the EU constitution but not providing the same funding to support a "no" vote. Reding also alleges that [...]

Pickett et al. v. Tyson, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, August 16, 2005 . Read the full text of the opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.