In an apparent political climbdown, UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke has approved publication of proposed amendments to the controversial British Identity Cards Bill that would require another Act of Parliament be passed to make the cards mandatory. The bill currently requires that anyone obtaining a British passport from 2008 onward also receive an ID card, [...]

Agreement Between the Attorney General of the State of New York and American International Group Inc., announced February 9, 2006 . Read the full text of the settlement agreement . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin Thursday presented a draft bill to the French cabinet introducing the concept of selective immigration . Under the proposed bill, immigration by highly skilled workers and educated professionals would be favored, but the poor and unskilled from outside the European Union (traditionally, the Middle East and Africa) would no [...]

A senior Italian judicial source who asked not to be named has said that the 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr in Milan and transporting him out of the country in 2003 in an instance of extraordinary rendition may be tried in absentia in proceedings that could begin within a month. [...]

US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief Kip Hawley told the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday that the controversial Secure Flight Program will be thoroughly audited before the system is considered for use. The program, which would compare the names of all domestic air passengers against national security watch lists, has been heavily criticized by civil liberties [...]

Former Argentine police and army officer Ricardo Taddei, wanted by Argentina for allegedly kidnapping and torturing 166 detainees during Argentina's 1976-1983 "dirty war" , was arrested in Spain Thursday. He is expected to appear before Spain's High Court, where he could be extradited to Argentina, though he could alternatively be charged in Spain as part [...]

An Uzbek court Thursday sentenced journalist Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov to seven years in prison on charges of conspiring with "terrorists," defaming the state, and religious extremism for providing information to foreign media regarding last year's violent uprising in Andijan where as many as 500 protesters were killed by state troops . Previous trials against protesters have [...]

Former Serbian army officer Sasa Badnjar, a suspected accomplice of fugitive war criminal Ratko Mladic has been arrested for aiding Mladic's evasion of arrest, Serbian authorities said Thursday. Mladic has successfully avoided arrest, allegedly due to assistance from army officers formerly in his command, on an indictment for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in [...]

AP is reporting that four holdout Senate Republicans have reached a tentative agreement with the White House on the renewal of the USA Patriot Act , according to Congressional sources. Several provisions of the anti-terror law were set to expire at the end of last year but members of Congress were unable to reach an [...]

The Australian Senate on Thursday voted to remove the need for the health minister's approval for importing and prescribing the abortion pill RU-486 (also known as Mifepristone) . The approval requirement effectively prohibits use of the drug since conservative anti-abortionist Tony Abbott holds the office of health minister and the power to veto applications for [...]