Ben Davis : "The President in his televised press conference today framed the discussion of the draft bill on Military Commissions in terms of whether Congress was going to permit "the Program" to go forward. He made it clear that Americans working in the intelligence community would not violate the law. He did not want [...]

While noting that "many of our nations are making progress on human rights," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged nations belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement Friday to "fulfill their obligations to their people at home" by ending the suppression of opposition groups, guaranteeing a free press and fighting corruption. Speaking at the NAM summit in Cuba [...]

A former lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission has said the agency ordered the destruction of a 2004 draft working paper that examined the effect of corporate group ownership on local television news coverage. Adam Candeub , who was an attorney-advisor in the FCC's Media Bureau before joining the Michigan State University law faculty, told [...]

An Italian military tribunal in Rome has indicted three Italian soldiers for a 2004 attack on an ambulance in the town of Nasiriyah in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of four civilians, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Thursday. The three soldiers fired on an ambulance they say they mistook for a vehicle containing [...]

The US Supreme Court will provide copies of oral argument transcripts on the Court's website the same day that cases are heard when the Court begins its new term on October 2, the court announced Thursday. In the past, the Court has offered same-day transcripts only in the rarest of cases with overwhelming public interest, [...]

Nine former federal judges sent a letter to Congress on Thursday raising concerns about a provision in the proposed Military Commissions Act of 2006 that, according to the judges, would "strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to test the lawfulness of Executive detention at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station and elsewhere outside the United States." [...]

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands on Friday refused to extradite the leader of the Kurdistan Worker's Party to Turkey, citing the possibility that she could be tortured after returning to the country. Nuriye Kesbir is accused of participating in 25 attacks in eastern Turkey between 1993 and 1995 as part of Kurdistan's battle for [...]

Three former employees of the Election Commission of Thailand received their second conviction on Friday for dereliction of duty in the April 2 election . The officials, who are appealing a July four-year sentence for abuse of power , were found to have aided the ruling Thai Rak Thai party in presenting mock candidates. The [...]

The US House of Representatives Thursday adopted a new rule requiring lawmakers to disclose their sponsorship of so-called "earmarks" inserted into bills to fund special spending projects. H.Res. 1000 requires that bills coming out of committee, bills containing tax measures, and conference reports list all earmarks and the names of the congressperson who requested them. [...]

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos acknowledged Thursday that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) planes transporting detainees to secret prisons in Europe may have stopped over on its soil. Moratinos told a European Parliament committee that although the US had assured Spain that no suspects were aboard the planes, the islands of Palma de Mallorca [...]