The verdict-reading for Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky continued into its fourth day Thursday, with the court saying that its sentencing would use less strict guidelines , possibly suggesting a lighter sentence for Khodorkovsky than the 10 years suggested by prosecutors. The court has now adjourned again until Friday, with still no word on whether [...]

Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday that the outcry over a retracted Newsweek story about religious abuse at Guantanamo is overshadowing genuine incidents where US personnel at the base intentionally offended the religious beliefs of Muslim detainees and desecrated the Koran. The group argued that the violent outrage over the story would not have been so [...]

With uncertainty looming in France, former French president and architect of the European Constitution Valery Giscard D'Estaing warned on Thursday that there could be no renegotiation of the treaty if French voters reject it in a referendum on May 29. Spain's government ratified the document Wednesday after strong support in a non-binding public referendum and [...]

Officials on Wednesday said a proposal is on the table that would allow the FBI greater access to business records without requiring judicial approval. After consultations with the Bush administration, Republican leaders of the US Senate Committee on Intelligence have proposed allowing the FBI to subpoena records from businesses without a judge's approval if it [...]

Republicans on the US House Armed Services Committee early Thursday backed off on an amendment to a defense bill that would have further limited women's participation in military operations, instead adopting the language of a Pentagon policy that bans women from direct ground combat roles. The amendment would have banned women from support units as [...]

UN legal experts met with Indonesian leaders Thursday to launch an inquiry into the violence and pro-Indonesian militia killings that followed the 1999 independence vote in East Timor and eventually led to the territory's emergence in 2002 as a fully independent state under the name of Timor-Leste , after a brief period of direct UN [...]

Testimony of the Honorable Joan H. Lefkow, Senate Judiciary Committee, May 18, 2005 . Excerpt: I am the fourth judge since 1978 who has been the victim of assassination as a result of "the madness in the shadows of modern life" (I borrow that phrase from the note former President Clinton wrote to me); more [...]

A Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority report released Wednesday says that Bush administration UN ambassador nominee John Bolton planned to ask CIA Director George Tenet to help punish a government intelligence analyst who disagreed with him. The report by Democratic members of the committee claims that Bolton pushed for months to have the analyst reprimanded, [...]

The long-awaited debate over the fate of the judicial filibuster began Wednesday in the US Senate. Republican majority leader Senator Bill Frist opened the floor debate and accused the Democrats of using the obstructive tactic as an attempt to “kill, and defeat” President Bush’s federal judicial nominees. Republicans are opposed to the use of the [...]

Following up on a story previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, a jury in West Palm Beach Florida has ordered investment giant Morgan Stanley to pay $850 million in punitive damages to billionaire investor Ronald Perelman . On Monday, the jury ordered Morgan Stanley to pay Perelman $604 million in actual damages for misrepresenting a [...]