US Senate and House negotiators are preparing to discuss conflicting versions of the USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 , including a provision in the House version that would allow federal prosecutors multiple attempts at securing the death penalty. Under current law, if a capital jury cannot decide unanimously whether to impose [...]

The United States and France circulated a draft UN resolution Tuesday that demands that Syria fully cooperate with a UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and threatens economic sanctions should Damascus not cooperate. The UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC), authorized by the UN Security Council to investigate the [...]

Final results of the referendum on the draft Iraqi constitution, Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq press briefing, October 25, 2005. Excerpt : I would like to inform you that I have the honor, with my colleague, to announce the final, complete results of the first constitutional referendum to be held in Iraq for a long [...]

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald could bring charges in the CIA leak case Wednesday, wrapping up a two-year investigation into the leak of undercover operative Valerie Plame's identity. Sources close to the case say that FBI agents recently interviewed Plame's neighbors who said they had been surprised to learn that Plame worked for the CIA, suggesting [...]

The US Justice Department told Congress Tuesday that it supported renewal of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act , preventing states with a history of discriminatory voting practices from implementing any change affecting voting until the US Attorney General or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia determined that the change [...]

Report Concerning the Testimony of George Galloway before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Majority Staff, US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Investigations, October 25, 2005 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A recent Federal Communications Commission ruling that would allow wiretapping of Internet calls was challenged Tuesday by privacy and technology groups in federal appeals court in Washington. The ruling makes it easier for law enforcement officials to tap Internet phone calls by mandating standards that would allow the wiretaps to be made. Internet call providers [...]

Documents regarding autopsies on deceased US-held detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, released to the public by the ACLU on October 24, 2005 pursuant to a FOIA request . Read the full text of the reports. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Egyptian police Tuesday clashed with relatives of political prisoners demonstrating outside the country's Interior Ministry. The protesters called for the immediate release of the detainees, mostly Islamists and suspected members of the Gamaa Islamiya and Jihad organizations, who were imprisoned after leading a violent campaign against the regime in the 1980s and 1990s. Egyptian human [...]

A Guantanamo detainee on hunger strike has asked for a motion ordering his feeding tube to be removed so that he can starve to death, his lawyers said Tuesday. Kuwaiti Fawzi al-Odah , 28, has been imprisoned without charges at Guantanamo Bay since his arrest in Pakistan in 2002. He has been force-fed through a [...]