The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Saturday harshly criticized the Obama administration's reported consideration of reviving the military commissions system to try Guantanamo Bay detainees . ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero called the plans "fatally flawed," saying the "military commissions are built on unconstitutional premises and designed to ensure convictions, not provide fair trials." [...]

Iceland Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said Sunday that the country's parliament will consider applying to join the European Union (EU) by holding a referendum when it meets on May 15. Sigurdardottir made the announcement shortly after constituting the cabinet of the country's new Social Democratic and Left Green coalition government . The two parties are split [...]

Military judge Colonel James Pohl has rejected a motion to delay a military commission hearing for Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi , according to a Sunday report by the Miami Herald. The hearing, scheduled for May 27, would be the first to be held since US President Barack Obama suspended the [...]

The FBI has failed to maintain an accurate and effective terrorist watchlist by failing to include known terrorism suspects and to remove records of people that have been cleared, according to a report by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) . The report, released last Wednesday, contains the results [...]

Ted Sorensen, former special counsel to US President John F. Kennedy, said in a commencement address at the University of Nebraska College of Law Saturday that lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) who authorized the use of enhanced interrogation techniques had "disgraced not only their country but their profession." Addressing law school graduates, Sorensen [...]

Former Bangladeshi foreign minister Morshed Khan began serving as a 13-year sentence on Sunday, after surrendering to a Dhaka court. Khan, who served from 2001 to 2006 under former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia was convicted last September of illegally amassing nearly $250,000 by the country's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) . Khan fled the country following [...]

The UN Environment Programme , meeting in Geneva on Saturday, decided to add nine chemicals to its list of banned chemicals under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) . Not all the added chemicals will be banned immediately , however, as some will need to be phased out over time and others will [...]

An official for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs Friday confirmed the government’s intention to appeal a Federal Court ruling directing the government to firmly push for the repatriation of Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr . In a brief statement obtained by the Toronto Star, the official emphasized Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s belief that [...]

A US military contractor who pleaded guilty in February to voluntary manslaughter for the 2008 shooting of an Afghan detainee was sentenced in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Friday to five years probation and a $12,500 fine. Don Ayala had been charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing detainee [...]

The US Department of the Interior (DOI) will maintain a controversial Bush-era rule that limits how polar bears are protected from global warming , Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Friday. Salazar had received special permission from Congress to amend the rule, which prevents the use of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to regulate [...]