The US Senate voted 51-45 Wednesday to approve the conference report for an intelligence funding bill , which includes a provision that would restrict CIA interrogators to using only those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. Field Manual 2-22.3 , Human Intelligence Collector Operations, explicitly prohibits the use of waterboarding , [...]

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey discussed ongoing DOJ efforts to promote the rule of law in Iraq during his first official trip to Baghdad Wednesday. Mukasey met with three high ranking judiciary officials, including the head of Iraq's Higher Judicial Council Chief Judge Medhat al-Mahmoud, to discuss US efforts to aid in the establishment of [...]

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) plans to try as many as eight suspects on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the Khmer Rouge communist regime of the 1970s, according to an ECCC planning document reported by AP on Wednesday. The document also indicates that the [...]

EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini Wednesday unveiled a comprehensive new border management package on behalf of the European Commission. The border security improvement initiative includes proposals for the creation of a European Border Surveillance System to prevent unauthorized border crossings and the development of new tools for an integrated European Border [...]

A judge for the International Criminal Court (ICC) said Wednesday that the trial of former Union of Patriotic Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga will likely be postponed for at least two months to allow defense lawyers sufficient time to prepare their case. In November 2007, the ICC set Lubanga's trial date for March 31, 2008, [...]

A media and financial tycoon who was recently charged with a conspiracy to overthrow the government of the Georgian Republic was found dead in his mansion near London Wednesday. A spokesman for Badri Patarkatsishvili said that Patarkatsishvili was believed to have died of heart failure, but police are treating his death as suspicious. In December [...]

US President George W. Bush Wednesday urged the House of Representatives to immediately pass the version of the FISA Amendments Act passed by the Senate this week. The US Senate voted 68-29 Tuesday to pass the legislation, which is intended to "modernize" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and replace the temporary Protect America Act , [...]

The UK will likely not have a written constitution for another 10 to 20 years, UK Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw said in a BBC radio interview Wednesday. Straw confirmed that the Labour Party government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in the process of drafting a new "Bill of [...]

The Iraqi Council of Representatives passed an amnesty law as part of a package of legislation approved Wednesday, a day after speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani threatened to disband the legislature when Shi'ite and Sunni lawmakers walked out on budget hearings. In addition to the amnesty law that would release roughly 5,000 prisoners, lawmakers approved a 2008 [...]

Real estate businesses have filed a lawsuit against the New York City Campaign Finance Board claiming that a new law that greatly restricts the amount that city businesses can donate to city campaigns violates the US Constitution. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday, alleges [...]