The days-long verdict reading in the trial of Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky will continue at least into Thursday and perhaps longer. The court adjourned Wednesday after four hours, prompting defense lawyers to accuse the government of stalling in order to try and downplay a politically-charged case . But defense lawyers appear to have won [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Michael Dougan, Professor of European Law and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law at England's University of Liverpool Law School. says that the UK referendum on the treaty to establish a European Constitution is a high-risk game, both for Europe and for Britain… The EU's Constitutional Treaty, agreed in [...]

AP is reporting that following a sentencing hearing Tuesday , a military jury at Fort Hood has sentenced Spc. Sabrina Harman to six months in prison in connection with her role in abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. 9:17 PM ET – With credit for time served before trial, Harman will only have to spend [...]

The three main opposition parties in Egypt, the moderate-left Wafd , Marxist Tagamu , and the Nasserist Party have joined forces to voice their opposition to a May 25 referendum on an Egyptian constitutional amendment allowing competitive presidential polls. They charge that the conditions for registration are so stringent that only the ruling National Democratic [...]

The future of a work-in-progress bill to provide $140 billion in asbestos compensation was threatened Tuesday by a looming battle between Republicans and Democrats over judicial nominations. Senators moved a Wednesday Senate Judiciary Committee business committee meeting on the subject to Thurday of this week because of intense debates over the nominees expected to take [...]

Army Spc. Sabrina Harman apologized for her role in the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison during the sentencing phase of her court-martial at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday. Harman was convicted Monday of six of the seven charges brought against her, including threatening an inmate with electrocution while he stood hooded on a [...]

Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles has been arrested by federal agents in Miami, according to a report from CNN. Posada, a onetime CIA asset who slipped into the US two months ago, is accused of bombing a Cuban airplane almost 30 years ago. The Venezuelan government has asked the Bush administration to deport him to [...]

China announced Tuesday that it will crack down on Chinese police officials' use of improper interrogation methods on criminal suspects. Chinese police are notorious for using coercion and torture while interrogating suspects . Prosecutors must now review all a criminal's police records as well as explicitly question the suspect to ensure that they were not [...]

Despite President Bush's veto threat, the Senate Tuesday passed a $295-billion highway bill to build more roads and create jobs by an 89-11 vote. The White House said $284 billion was the most it would approve; the House bill was for this amount . The Senate added $11 billion to the bill but said it [...]

Uzbekistan Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov Tuesday denied reports that Uzbek government forces opened fire on demonstrators Friday who were protesting government repression in the eastern city of Andijan. Although Kadyrov claimed that no civilians were killed by government fire, hundreds of witnesses reported that the government troops did shoot into a crowd of hundreds of peaceful [...]