The US House of Representatives late Friday evening narrowly approved a tough new border security and immigration bill that includes plans to build a security fence across 621 miles of the Mexican border and authorizes the US Department of Homeland Security to study the possibility of placing barriers across the famously "undefended" US border with [...]

New York-based human rights Human Rights Watch warned Friday that the McCain Amendment prohibiting the cruel and inhumane treatment of US-held detainees that was finally endorsed Thursday by a reluctant Bush administration could yet be undercut by another amendment included in the same defense spending bill that would limit the recourse of Guantanamo detainees to [...]

Canadian-born media tycoon Conrad Black , former chairman of publishing giant Hollinger International, pleaded not guilty in Chicago Friday to an additional four felony counts that include racketeering and obstruction of justice. Black, a member of the UK House of Lords who gave up his Canadian citizenship, was originally indicted on criminal fraud charges for [...]

Sixteen key sections of the Patriot Act came closer to year-end expiration Friday as the Republican leadership in the US Senate failed to get the votes of three-fifths of the chamber's membership necessary to invoke cloture on a proposed conference compromise that would have renewed and in most cases permanently entrenched them in law, leaving [...]

The French Senate has approved a slightly amended version of a new anti-terror law providing for increased public video surveillance, more access by authorities to communications records and passenger information, and new police powers to stop vehicles. The legislation introduced by hardline French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy passed Thursday by a vote of 203-122, with [...]

The British government has announced that it will appeal a High Court ruling earlier this week that found Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks eligible for British citizenship. Hicks, whose mother is British and who lived in London for a time as a boy, sought British citizenship in hopes that the British government would be willing [...]

The trial of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk for slander against the state was adjourned Friday until February 7, 2006 to give Turkey's Justice Ministry time to decide if the case is in line with judicial procedures after a prosecutorial request. Under Turkish law, individual rights can be restricted to preserve the "integrity of the state" [...]

Austria Thursday mailed notifications to the first survivors of the Holocaust eligible for payments in its 2001 General Settlement Fund which compensates victims robbed of businesses, property, bank accounts and insurance policies under the Nazis. So far, 100 of the 19, 300 survivors who have applied for restitution have been notified . The letters detail [...]

Serge Brammertz , a Belgian prosecutor who is currently the deputy prosecutor for the International Criminal Court at The Hague, appears set to replace German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis as head of the UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri , according to UN officials and Lebanese press reports. Although the [...]

An Australian court hearing a bail application by Australian Muslims detained in a major November anti-terror sweep was told by prosecutors Friday that two of the suspects had discussed assassinating Australian Prime Minister John Howard, killing police and attacking families at soccer matches. The 18 suspects arrested in raids in Sydney and Melbourne are charged [...]