[JURIST] A senior British barrister with high security clearance to represent detainees before the UK Special Immigration Appeals Commission which tries terror suspects said Sunday that he would resign following a House of Lords ruling Thursday which had found the British legislation on indefinite detention of foreign terror suspects to be unlawful. In the letter to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Ian MacDonald QC described the law as "odious" and a "blot on the legal landscape", and said that "My role has been altered to provide a false legitimacy to indefinite detention without knowledge of the accusations being made and without any kind of criminal charge or trial." The Mail on Sunday has more. A lay member of SIAC, Brian Barder, similarly resigned in protest in January 2004, describing the Commission's powers as a "threat to our traditional liberties." Read a statement on his website here.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that the Russian government Sunday auctioned the core production unit of oil giant Yukos to Russian group Baikalfinansgroup for $9.3 billion in defiance of a US bankruptcy court injunction issued Thursday and upheld on appeal from potential Russian auction bidder Gazprom late Saturday. AP has more on the Saturday appeal here.

10:38 AM ET - From Russia, MosNews.com now has more on the auction sale in English.

[JURIST] Former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet was admited to Santiago's Military Hospital hospital Saturday for treatment for a suspected stroke, one day after a Chilean appeals court delayed a decision on an indictment and house arrest order against him. AP has more. From Santiago, El Mercurio has local coverage in Spanish. JURIST has ongoing coverage of the Pinochet case here.