Somalia's parliament on Oct. 31 voted 297-92 to approve new Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, after several delays due to a constitutional dispute over the confirmation procedure. Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Mahmud had argued that due to the silence of the Somali Transitional Federal Charter on confirmation procedures, Somalia's 1960 Constitution must control, which states that all confirmations must be expressed by open vote. Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden disputed this, pushing for a secret ballot. Supporters of Abdullahi say he may have a better chance than predecessors of controlling Islamist insurgents and pirates the come from the country.

A Kuwaiti appeals court on Oct. 28 upheld the acquittal of eight men accused of attempting to form an al-Qaeda cell and planning to attack a US base 70 miles south of Kuwait City. The men were tried and acquitted by a lower court in May, with two of the men, Mohsen al-Fadhli and Mohammad al-Dossari, being acquitted in absentia. Al-Fadhli has been wanted by Kuwaiti security forces for the past five years, and al-Dossari is standing trial in Lebanon on charges of terrorism. Five of the remaining defendants were released from custody following the original acquittals, while the sixth defendant is currently serving a life sentence on unrelated terror charges. The court of appeals also upheld the lower court's ruling that the men had been tortured by the Kuwaiti security service. Adel Abdulhadi, a lawyer for the acquitted men, said that the defense team was considering suing the interior ministry for the alleged torture. The prosecution still has the option of appealing the acquittals to Kuwait's highest court, although they have not yet indicated whether they will do so.

A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Oct. 25 struck down a portion of an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration. The court held that the law, Proposition 200, was inconsistent with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), which was passed with the intent of increasing voter registration and removing barriers to registration imposed by the states. The NVRA requires voters to attest to the validity of the information on their registration form, including their citizenship, but does not require them to provide additional proof of citizenship. Proposition 200 went beyond the federal statute, requiring applicants to show proof of citizenship before registering to vote.

Prosecutors investigating the secret CIA prison in Poland on Oct. 27 gave Saudi terror suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri victim status, recognizing the validity of his claims that he was mistreated by interrogators. According to ex-CIA officials, al-Nashiri, accused of bombing the USS Cole, was tortured by the agency at the secret prison in Poland. Granting al-Nashiri victim status will grant the detainee more rights and allow his lawyers to participate in the proceedings.

A group of 15 Spanish police officers went on trial Oct. 26 in Guipúzcoa Provincial Court, in the northern Basque country, for the torture of two ETA activists. The alleged victims, Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, were convicted and sentenced to 1,040 years in prison in the 2006 Madrid airport bombing that killed two people. Portu and Sarasola claim police mistreated them physically and psychologically. The Guardia Civil police force maintains the two were trying to escape, and that limited use of force was necessary. Prosecutors seek two to three years in prison for the accused officers.

UN Special Rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak called Oct. 23 for the Obama administration to launch an inquiry into the role of the US in human rights violations allegedly committed in Iraq. Nowak's comments follow the release of government information on WikiLeaks that included thousands of previously classified documents. Many of the documents purportedly illustrate instances of abuse, torture and murder carried out by US and Iraqi forces.

Canadian Guantánamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr on Oct. 25 pleaded guilty to all five charges against him, including conspiracy, murder and aiding the enemy. Under the terms of the agreement, Khadr will serve up to eight more years in prison in addition to the eight he has already spent in detention. At least one of those years will be spent at Guantánamo Bay. One other purported condition of the plea is that the US will support Khadr's eventual application for transfer to Canada, a bargain that has been agreed to by the US and Canada through a series of sealed diplomatic notes. The guilty plea marks a reversal from Khadr's original stance, voiced by one of his attorneys, that he would not accept a plea deal. Khadr's sentence will be determined by a panel of seven senior military officers at a hearing that will begin this week.

Haitian prison officers are found to have killed 12 detainees "deliberately and without justification," using "inappropriate, abusive and disproportionate force" during a Jan. 19 prison uprising, according to an independent commission, the New York Times reported Oct. 21. The Times obtained an exclusive copy of the commission's report, which said the incident involved "grave violations of human rights." The uprising occurred just days after Haiti was hit with a devastating earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people and left some one million homeless.