California Supreme Court Chief Justice and Republican appointee Ronald George said in a Reuters interview Tuesday that the state should execute death row inmates within five years of sentencing or reprieve them, as opposed to waiting for twenty years or more as it does now. This issue has received increased attention in light of the [...]

A bill renewing the 2002 Terrorism Risk Insurance Act will be debated in the US House of Representatives later this week, according to acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-MS) . The original law, passed after 9/11 and set to expire on December 31, 2005, required insurers to offer terrorism insurance but capped private insurance [...]

The Pentagon announced Tuesday that military commission trials for two foreign Guantanamo prisoners will begin with plea hearings on January 10 at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility without waiting for the US Supreme Court to decide the legality of such tribunals. The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld , where it will [...]

A Russian judge announced at a preliminary hearing Tuesday that three Chechens accused of murdering US journalist Paul Klebnikov in July 2004 would be tried in front of a jury during closed sessions. The man the Russian prosecutor's office believes to have ordered the killings , Chechen rebel leader Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev , is still at [...]

Natwar Singh , India's former foreign minister, resigned his position on the Indian Cabinet on Tuesday amid accusations that his majority party improperly benefited from the UN's oil-for-food program . Singh maintained his innocence on Tuesday, asserting he was stepping down to avoid being the excuse for the opposition to stall in Parliament. In November, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lacks the statutory authority to compel lawyers to provide periodic notice of privacy to clients under the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act , regulating "financial institutions." The Court said that Congress never intended for the Act to apply to lawyers [...]

Azerbaijan's main political opposition party, Azadliq , announced Tuesday that it plans to boycott the new parliament that won power after disputed November elections. Azadliq won five seats in that contest, in which both party members and international observers allege widespread fraud. After the elections, both international monitors and the political opposition challenged the outcome [...]

The heads of Romania's parliament Tuesday announced plans to seek an inquiry into the reports that Romania hosted a secret CIA prison . Meanwhile in Poland, identified as another European country that may have harbored a secret CIA facility for terror detainees, the Justice Ministry announced that it will not investigate those reports, which the [...]

In a motion filed Tuesday, prosecutors in the trial of Zacarias Mousaoui asked a federal judge to limit impact testimony of the hundreds of living victims who expressed their desire to testify about their loss as a result of the September 11 attacks. Arguing that allowing those "several hundred" victims an opportunity to speak would [...]

AP is reporting that a federal jury has acquitted Sami Al-Arian , the former Florida professor accused of aiding Palestinian terrorists, on some counts but has deadlocked on others. Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase… Ex-professor calls no witnesses to defend against US terror charges Federal judge says no mistrial in ex-professor terror case Israeli police [...]