Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday that the country was "extremely disappointed" and "distressed" at the release from prison of Abu Bakar Bashir , the Indonesian Muslim cleric jailed in connection to the 2002 Bali bombings . Bashir was released Wednesday after serving 26 months in prison following his conviction on conspiracy charges . [...]

The United Nations on Wednesday renewed its calls for the US to immediately close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in the wake of three detainee suicides last weekend, saying the suicides were predictable because of the conditions there. In a statement issued Wednesday, five UN human rights experts who have been monitoring events at [...]

Government Response to Memorandum of Amicus Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the US House of Representatives on a Motion for Return of Property filed by Rep. William Jefferson, US Department of Justice, June 13, 2006 . Read the full text of the response .

The US Department of Defense has rejected a demand by Amnesty International for an independent investigation into last weekend's three detainee suicides at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that no independent probe was needed and maintained that the military would investigate the deaths itself. Military officials have also asserted that [...]

The new US Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation will not contain a classified section, despite warnings from some in the Department of Defense that disclosing certain techniques would undermine the ability of interrogators to extract information, military officials said Tuesday. Interrogation techniques originally slated to be classified will be released publicly in the new [...]

Former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell was sentenced to 2 1/2 years imprisonment Tuesday for three tax evasion charges on which he was convicted in March . Judge Richard Story of the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia also ordered Campbell to pay $62,823 in unpaid taxes and $6,300 in fines. Campbell, who [...]

Newdow v. Congress, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Judge Frank Damrell, June 12, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration testified in a deposition that the agency postponed a decision to allow over-the-counter sales of Plan B emergency contraceptives while it considered how to restrict nonprescription access only to females 17 and older. Dr. Lester Crawford , a veterinarian who led the FDA for three [...]

Lawyers for three men Arab Muslim men argued before the Supreme Court of Canada Tuesday that a program allowing the government to indefinitely detain and deport foreigners with suspected ties to terrorism is unconstitutional. The three men – Adil Charkaoui, Hassan Almrei and Mohamed Harkat – contend that their detentions breach the Canadian Charter of [...]

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council Tuesday that he has asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish an independent commission that will investigate the recent surge in violence in East Timor . "The sad events of recent weeks reflect shortcomings not only on the part of the Timorese leadership, [...]