Outlining a $7.1 million plan to prepare for a possible bird flu epidemic , President Bush has asked Congress to devise a plan to provide liability protection for vaccine manufacturers. In his speech Tuesday, Bush said that extending liability protection was key to encouraging vaccine production in the US: I'm also asking Congress to remove [...]

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair won a narrow victory in the House of Commons Wednesday as his government warded off an amendment to its proposed counter-terrorism legislation by one vote. The government defeated a proposal to add the element of "intent" to the new crime of inciting terrorism by 300-299 , although its usual majority [...]

A US federal appeals court has agreed to rehear the appeal of five accused Cuban spies , convicted of serving as unregistered agents of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit espionage. The decision to rehear the case comes after an August decision by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the [...]

New Japanese Minister of Justice Seiken Sugiura on Tuesday had to retreat from a statement he made earlier in the day indicating that he would not sign execution orders. Sugiura initially said that he would not sign execution orders due to his opposition to the death penalty, but later said that the comment was an [...]

A Pentagon official confirmed Tuesday that Omar al-Farouq, formerly one of Osama bin Laden's top aides until his capture in 2002, escaped from a US-run detention facility in Afghanistan in July with three other prisoners. His escape means he will not testify against Sgt. Alan J. Driver, the soldier accused of maltreatment and assault against [...]

A new set of standards for handling detainees suspected of terrorism under US Department of Defense Directive 2310.1 has sparked internal debate within the Bush administration. The standards currently under development use language from the Geneva Conventions to prohibit "cruel," "humiliating" and "degrading" treatment of terror suspects. Advocates say that moving US detention policies closer [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist R. Dobie Langenkamp, Director of the National Energy-Environment Law and Policy Institute at the University of Tulsa School of Law, says that for all the bad publicity surrounding the now-defunct UN Oil-for-Food program, the overall humanitarian effort was a success and the extent of any wrongdoing relatively minor… Detractors of the UN [...]

Australia's proposed anti-terrorism laws were backed Wednesday by four of the country's state and territory leaders, ensuring that Prime Minister John Howard has enough support to introduce the proposals to the federal Parliament. The premiers of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia have given their support to the proposed laws; Queensland Premier Peter [...]

The trial of four former makers of lead paint and pigment, Millennium Holdings, Sherwin-Williams, Atlantic Richfield , and NL Industries , began in Rhode Island Tuesday. State lawyers have alleged that the four companies are responsible for a paint product that contaminated hundreds of thousands of homes and caused 35,000 children to suffer from lead [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday that he has received specific intelligence of a terrorist attack on the country, and urged lawmakers to strengthen the powers of Australian intelligence agencies. The news prompted Howard to hurriedly introduce an amendment to current counterterrorism laws in the Australian House of Representatives . The amendment would make [...]