Leading Thursday's international brief, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that he's sending UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel to Lebanon to assist government officials there in identifying the "nature and scope of the international assistance" needed to create a tribunal charged with trying those accused of killing Prime Minister Hariri and others in [...]

Letter from Senator Arlen Specter to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales setting out questions to be addressed by the AG in scheduled US Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on "Wartime executive Powers and the NSA's Surveillance Authority", January 24, 2006. Read the full text of the questions via FindLaw. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, eldest daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet , requested political asylum in the US Wednesday after being detained at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC. US Ambassador to Chile Craig Kelly informed Chilean Interior Minister Francisco Vidal of the request, which Hiriart made after US authorities denied her entry because the [...]

Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban, an Indiana truck driver accused of offering to sell names of US covert operatives to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government, was convicted Wednesday on six of seven criminal counts , including acting as an unregistered foreign agent, violating sanctions against Iraq, conspiracy and witness tampering. Sentencing will take place on April [...]

US President George W. Bush on Wednesday defended his authorization of the National Security Agency (NSA) warrantless domestic surveillance program in a visit to the agency’s headquarters, saying that “the work they do is vital and necessary, and I support them a hundred percent.” Bush responded to criticism that he lacks the legal authority to [...]

Enron founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling on Wednesday asked the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse its rejection of their motion to change the venue of their trial for fraud and conspiracy and to suspend the trial pending the appeal. Without hearing oral arguments, US District Court Judge Sim Lake of [...]

Leading Wednesday's environmental law news, Judge John Suddock of the Alaska Superior Court has ruled that owners of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline have been overcharging in-state refineries for crude oil transport. The ruling upholds a 2002 decision by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska which had been challenged by the pipeline owners, including BP, Conoco Phillips, [...]

The state that was once known as being "For Lovers" has come one step closer to formally banning same-sex marriage. The Virginia Senate Wednesday overwhemingly approved a bill that would allow voters to endorse a constitutional amendment against it on the upcoming November ballot. Bill sponsor Republican Sen. Stephen D. Newman said he was confident [...]

The Republican majority in the Georgia legislature has pushed through a revised voter ID bill which would require all voters to show either a driver's license, military ID or state-issued identification card with a photo prior to voting. Hailed by Democrats as a regurgitation of the disenfranchising poll tax and an attempt to effectively rig [...]

In a US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on lobbying reform Wednesday, trade group lobbyists questioned the need for the new ethics reform proposal that would place stricter regulations on lobbyists and lawmakers. The new regulations were proposed shortly after Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, [...]