JURIST Special Guest Columnist and UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke says that as the British government's proposed Terrorism Bill proceeds through Parliament we should bear in mind that citizens of democracies expect not only the protection of individual rights, but also the protection of core democratic values such as safety and security… My foremost duty [...]

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) announced Tuesday that results from its investigation into allegations of voting fraud during the December 15 parliamentary elections will be announced Wednesday, but that voting results will not be released for two weeks, until the International Mission for Iraqi Elections , an independent group who agreed last week [...]

A Chilean appeals court on Monday allowed ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet to post bail for six of the nine human rights charges he faces relating to Operation Colombo . Pinochet remains under house arrest, however, because the court did not rule on the remaining three rights charges Pinochet faces, but is requiring the defense team to [...]

US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has promised to push for major changes in the United Nations in an interview published Monday in the Washington Post, including reforms to the international body's human rights panel. Bolton said he will work to abolish the current 53-member Commission on Human Rights and replace it with a [...]

French President Jacques Chirac on Monday said that he plans to officially end France's state of emergency on Wednesday. The status of heightened security and increased police powers, implemented in November in response to rioting in Paris, was originally scheduled to end in late February but will be lifted ahead of schedule as a result [...]

Iran announced Monday, without further explanation, that it has ordered the closure a daily newspaper, Asia, and banned the publication of a forthcoming, bi-weekly women's periodical, Nour-e Banovan. The Culture Ministry said the Supervisory Board on the Press has agreed to the bans, and the cases will now be sent to court. The announcement signaled [...]

The Syrian government announced Monday that it will put former Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam on trial for high treason and investigate his alleged acts of corruption in response to demands by Syrian parliament members that Khaddam be investigated and following his expulsion from the country's ruling Baath party. Khaddam claimed in an interview last [...]

Bulgaria's Justice Minister Georgi Petkanov said Monday that the Libyan trial of five Bulgarian nurses, accused of intentionally infecting over 400 patients with HIV in an attempt to discover a cure for the virus, should be finished by June 2006. The case was sent back to a lower court for retrial by the Libyan Supreme [...]

The Supreme Court of Oregon has ruled that juries may retroactively resentence as many as 300-400 criminal defendants based on aggravating circumstances, such as the use of a gun, breach of trust, or racial motivation. In three decisions released Friday – State v. Upton , State v. Sawatzky , and State v. Heilman – the [...]

A spokesperson for the UN commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri announced Monday that the commission will request interrogations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa . The commission is also seeking to question former Vice President Abdel al-Halim Khaddam , whose televised statements last week implicating [...]