UN officials have released a revised version of plans to reform the 60-year old organization and its mandate, articulating for the first time a definition of terrorism ("the targeting and deliberate killing of civilians and noncombatants") to ground a new anti-terror convention and authorizing the UN Security Council to step in to stop genocide, war [...]

The Iranian judiciary released a report Saturday detailing what it called widespread instances of human rights violations, from solitary confinement to physically coerced confessions. A law passed last year banning torture is frequently ignored, according to the report, confirming criticisms of Iranian prisons by watchdog groups . Reuters has more.

California's Third District Court of Appeal ruled late Friday that Proposition 80 , a ballot initiative that would expand the power of the California Public Utilities Commission , violated the state constitution and struck it from the November ballot. Because Article 12 {text] of the California Constitution gives plenary power to the Legislature to control [...]

A senior Royal Nepalese Army official said Saturday that six Nepalese soldiers who were part of a UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been convicted of sexual abuse. The United Nations last year implemented new measures to reduce such situations from occurring, such as making it easier for women to come [...]

US Department of Defense lawyers have refused to comply with a federal judge's order to release pictures and videotapes documenting the abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners, alleging release "could result in harm to individuals." Judge Alvin Hellerstein had ordered the information be released as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the [...]

US Senator John Kerry (D-MA) called on the White House Friday to release the complete file of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts during the time he served in two Republican administrations. Democrats are seeking the documents in part to learn of Roberts' role during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida. Kerry said, "We cannot [...]

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has violated the 1974 Privacy Act by collecting personal information on nearly 250,000 people without their knowledge, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Friday. Congressional investigators said the TSA was testing a program called Secure Flight which checks airline passengers for potential matches on terrorist watch lists [...]

Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe to assess the Scope and Impact of Operation Murambatsvina, UN Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues in Zimbabwe, July 22, 2005 . Excerpt: On 19 May 2005, with little or no warning, the Government of Zimbabwe embarked on an operation to "clean-up" its cities. It was a "crash"operation [...]

US v. Kaczynski, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, July 21, 2005 . Excerpt: We remand to the district court… to give a timely and adequate opportunity for the government to present… a commercially reasonable plan to dispose of the property at issue, the principal purpose of which shall be to maximize [...]

Leading Friday's states brief, Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal has ruled that unused butterfly ballots from the 2000 presidential election can be destroyed as they are not public records. Chief Judge Charles J. Kahn, Jr. wrote that a ballot becomes public record when it is voted, but "the unused ballots, en masse, are no [...]