Seven federal appellate judges who have worked with US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday on the fourth day of his confirmation hearings, saying that Alito would be an independent and ethical justice. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee opposed the testimony of the jurists, citing the judicial code [...]

Croatia plans to ask the government of Australia to extradite former Serb commander “Captain Dragan” Vasiljkovic , charged with war crimes committed during Croatia’s 1991-1995 independence war. Croatia accuses Vasiljkovic of torturing and killing Croat soldiers, civilians and prisoners of war and of involvement in the forced expulsion of entire villages in Serb-held territories in [...]

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday dismissed a free speech suit by Yahoo! Inc. challenging a $15 million fine imposed on the company five years ago by a French court for running an auction site displaying Nazi memorabilia, which is banned in France. Yahoo! sought legal protection for US Internet portals displaying content [...]

The US Justice Department filed a motion with the US Supreme Court Thursday to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction a case brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan challenging President Bush's authority to establish military commissions to try Guantanamo Bay detainees for war crimes. The Court agreed to hear Hamdan's case last November. The DOJ's argument centers [...]

Leading Thursday's environmental law news, the Alaska Bureau of Land Management has issued a Record of Decision Wednesday that will open approximately 500,000 acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska to oil and gas drilling. The RoD contains amendments to the Final Environmental Impact Statement including setting aside roadless areas within the [...]

DNA test results released Thursday by the State of Virginia have apparently confirmed the guilt of Roger Keith Coleman , who was convicted of the 1981 rape and murder of his sister-in-law and was executed in 1992 despite a significant effort by death penalty opponents to stay the sentence. The Centre of Forensic Sciences in [...]

The European Parliament Thursday opened an official investigation into allegations that several European countries allowed the CIA to secretly detain prisoners within their borders and airspace as part of the US "war on terror". The investigation will determine: – whether the CIA or other US agents or intelligence services of other third countries have carried [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour , currently on a one-week mission to Uganda , expressed concern Thursday about fundamental human rights problems in the northern area of the country where government forces have been fighting the infamous Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) :The situation in northern Uganda remains extremely grave and this gravity [...]

On Thursday, the District Court judge hearing the emergency lawsuit brought by families of a group of Cubans who were deported for failing to reach US land criticized the government's reasoning supporting the deportation order. The Cubans had reached an abandoned bridge piling in the Florida Keys region, and because the bridge was no longer [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee completed its questioning of Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito on Thursday, the fourth day of its confirmation hearings for the Third Circuit jurist. Alito, who appears headed for approval, declared his admiration for his predecessor, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor , praising "her integrity and her dedication to the case-by-case [...]