In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

27 Aug

 In an effort not to stoke tensions any further, Japan's central government has declined authorization to the Tokyo Metropolitan Authorities to survey the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Japan's territorial tensions with South Korea hinder their bilateral free trade negotiations. The EU has called on Gambia to halt executions of death row inmates after Amnesty International reported that 9 were executed last Thursday, and all remaining inmates are scheduled...

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24 Aug

Libya has set a date for the trial of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, despite the calls for him to be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. More from Jurist can be found here. Israel claimed that South Africa is acting like an "apartheid state" with its new move to mark goods coming from the West Bank with made in...

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23 Aug

Egypt has requested a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Despite the claims put forth by Julian Assange, the US says it has no case against him for which he could potentially be extradited. In Guantanamo Bay, tropical storm Isaac has delayed hearings for five detainees charged in the 9/11 attacks. The head of the IAEA has said he is "not too...

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22 Aug

The IAEA has confirmed that it will engage in new talks with Iran on Friday. Iran has unveiled a new short-range missile and introduced plans to build a new missile-defense system in a show of readiness for any potential Israeli attack. Were a conflict to break out between Israel and Iran, it could cost Israel's economy upwards of $42 billion, according to...

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21 Aug

As UN monitors left Syria, fighting progressed to suburbs of Damascus. US president Barack Obama has said that if Syria's government were to use chemical weapons, the US would be forced to act. German politicians have said that they will give no leeway to Greece regarding financial reform. Israel has positioned an Iron Dome, a rocket interceptor and destroyer, on the Egyptian border...

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20 Aug

Julian Assange has thanked Ecuador's president Rafael Correa for the "courage he has shown" in granting him political asylum in his first public appearance from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. While Britain still denies Assange safe passage from London, Correa chastised the UK for their threats to storm the embassy to remove Assange, calling them "vulgar, inconsiderate and intolerable." He also...

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17 Aug

News sites and blogs are full of condemnation for what appears to be an excessive sentence for the political protest/stunt pulled by the Russian punk band Pussy Riot in an Orthodox church earlier this year. (Even President Putin had hoped the group would not be judged "too harshly.")  Over at the CLR Forum, my St. John's colleague Mark Movsesian, who...

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17 Aug

The big news yesterday was that Ecuador granted WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, political asylum, angering Britain. Swedish and British authorities are critical of the decision, while UK authorities are refusing to grant Assange safe passage out of London. One of Assange's attorneys, Baltazar Garzon, has entertained the idea of taking this dispute between Ecuador and the UK to the International Court...

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16 Aug

Militants have attacked Pakistan's nuclear air base which houses US F-16 fighters and about 100 nuclear warheads. The Organization on Islamic Co-operation has suspended Syria over the violent repression of the political protests, although there was no support for an external military intervention. A political and media advisor to Syria's Assad is visiting Beijing where she has praised China and Russia for not being colonizers. A UN Independent Commission...

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