Former US President Jimmy Carter said Monday that President Bush overstepped his constitutional powers by authorizing the NSA's domestic surveillance program . The former president was also critical of Monday's testimony from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in defense of the program. Carter called Gonzales' claims that the program [...]

Leading Tuesday's international brief, Sudanese Minister for Foreign Affairs al-Samani al-Wasiylah has said that Sudan has backed off its initial refusal to allow a UN peacekeeping force into the Darfur region , but would still require consultation by UN officials before they would agree to the mandate. Al-Samani al-Wasiylah clarified that the Sudan government was [...]

US. v. Zacarias Moussaoui, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, February 6, 2006 . Read the full text of the questionnaire . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Prepared Statement of Hon. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, before the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wartime Executive Power and the NSA's Surveillance Authority, February 6, 2006 . Read the full text of the statement. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Guantanamo: Lives torn apart — The impact of indefinite detention on detainees and their families, Amnesty International, February 6, 2006 . Excerpt: In this document, Amnesty International relates the continuing plight of the detainees, and summarizes developments related to the ongoing hunger strike and further suicide attempts. The organization also assesses the situation of nine [...]

Manitoba MP Vic Toews became the new Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Monday when he was sworn in along with the rest of the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a ceremony in Ottawa. Harper's Conservative Party defeated the incumbent Liberals in the January federal election , putting them into opposition [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales late Monday concluded a day of testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on the Bush administration's controversial domestic surveillance program . Although Gonzales maintained that the wiretapping program was a vital "early warning system" for terrorists, several Republicans and Democrats continued to challenge the president's authority to initiate the [...]

The US Senate Monday began debate of controversial legislation that would create a privately-funded trust to compensate victims of asbestos exposure and shield companies from further liability. Under the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act , $140 billion would be set aside by asbestos manufacturers and insurance companies in exchange for immunity from civil suits [...]

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Monday that the resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Directors to refer Iran to the UN Security Council was a "hasty and unjustified decision without any legal and technical basis." Interviewed on BBC Radio 4, Soltanieh also asserted that the Board's vote [...]

British judge Rosalyn Higgins , a highly-respected legal scholar and international lawyer, was elected president of International Court of Justice (ICJ) Monday, becoming the first woman to serve in that role. Higgins, the only woman ever to sit on the ICJ, was elected by her 15 fellow judges to serve a three-year term as president. [...]