Pakistan

After dozens of schoolkids were killed by the Taliban, Pakistan has changed its constitution to allow military courts to try militants, the New York Times reports: "Among analysts and legal experts, the military courts have raised a slew of worries about the erosion of fundamental rights, the sidelining of the civilian judiciary and the prospect of soldiers’ wielding untrammeled power in a country with a long history of military takeovers." The courts, however, had wide support, even among opponents to military rule.  "Legal, political and militancy experts warn that these courts are not a panacea for terrorism, and that Pakistanis may be making a grave mistake in treating the rule of law as a negotiable commodity," especially considering the support for militancy in Pakistani society.

The United Nations has called on countries, including the United States, which use drone strikes for counterterrorism purposes to comply with international law, The Dawn, a newspaper in Pakistan, reports. The resolution was sponsored by Pakistan.

It is the first time the United Nations has spoken on the issuse of remote-controlled drones, The Dawn reprots.

The Washington Post reports on a joint effort from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to investigate how many civilians are killed by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan: "In Yemen, Human Rights Watch investigated six selected airstrikes since 2009 and concluded that at least 57 of the 82 people killed were civilians, including a pregnant woman and three children who perished in a September 2012 attack. In Pakistan, Amnesty International investigated nine suspected U.S. drone strikes that occurred between May 2012 and July 2013 in the territory of North Waziristan. The group said it found strong evidence that more than 30 civilians were killed in four of the attacks."

Both groups said it is nearly impossible to gauge if the civilians who were killed met the legal standard of posing an imminent threat to the United States because of the secrecy governing drone strikes, The Washington Post also reported.