Lawyers for the US government argued for the extradition of Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri in a hearing before a London court Thursday. Al-Masri is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Britain for urging his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims and using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior" to stir up [...]

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) held elections to its 47-member Geneva-based panel on Thursday, with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia defeating Belarus for the two available Eastern European states seats. The US, most European countries, and several human rights groups opposed Belarus' candidacy, citing the country's poor human rights record. Angola, Egypt, and Qatar also won [...]

Two Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday that they plan to seek a vote of no-confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales . Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that only President Bush remains confident in Gonzales, under fire for the allegedly political firings of nine federal prosecutors . Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and [...]

Thomas Wilner, et al. v. National Security Agency and Department of Justice, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, May 17, 2007 . Read the full text of the complaint . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Key US senators from both political parties and White House cabinet officers reached a tentative agreement on immigration reform on Thursday, after weeks of negotiations. The proposal, which President Bush calls "secure, productive, orderly, and fair" , gives more weight to an immigrant's education level than his family connections in the US when awarding green [...]

A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney urged a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame against members of the Bush administration, arguing that the lawsuit is based on "fanciful claims." Plame filed the lawsuit last year, alleging that White House officials violated her constitutional rights to free speech, [...]

Australian authorities have released British-born Jack Roche on parole 3 years after sentencing him in 2004 to nine years in prison for plotting to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra , according to Thursday media reports. Roche must now regularly report to police. Born in England, Roche traveled to Afghanistan and met with Osama [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Thursday denounced the poor conditions of prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a visit there, deploring in particular overcrowding and inadequate access to justice. Three thousand people are imprisoned at the CPRK (Centre Penitentiare et de Réeducation de Kinshasa), the largest prison in DRC's [...]

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) , the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted Thursday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will resign from his post at the conclusion of current investigations into the allegedly-political firings of federal prosecutors . Specter's comments followed others made by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) Wednesday, who suggested that by remaining [...]

Ivan Dombrovsky, chairperson of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine , resigned without elaboration Thursday as the 18-judge court continued to deliberate the constitutionality of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's April 2 decree dissolving parliament and calling for new elections. The Constitutional Court has appointed Deputy Chair Valery Pshenichny to be the new chief justice. Pshenichny was [...]