The US House voted 238-194 Tuesday to loosen restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and the legislation now goes to the Senate, where it has strong bi-partisan support. However, President Bush has promised to veto the bill. Under the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act , the federal government could fund research involving [...]

Justice Emmanuel Olayinka Ayoola , President of the Special Court of Sierra Leone , the tribunal created by the UN to hear cases of serious crimes committed during the West African country's civil war, warned the UN Security Council Tuesday that the court was close to financial crisis. The justice asked for $40 million in [...]

Hearings on a Bill to Reauthorize Certain Provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and for Other Purposes, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, May 24, 2005 . Read the full text of the hearing statements. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

British Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced Tuesday that three British men, all Greenwich Natwest bankers, will be extradited to the US to face trial for their involvment in the Enron scandal. Clarke is upholding a London court's ruling from October . The bankers face trial in the US on fraud charges for pocketing 1.5 million [...]

Human Rights Watch accused the US Tuesday of allowing two US citizens of Pakistani descent to be tortured and abused while being held in Pakistan as suspected al Qaeda members. Brothers Kashan and Zain Afzal were detained in Pakistan for eight months, during which they both claim they were tortured and questioned by FBI agents [...]

The High Court in Spain on Tuesday freed on bail 9/11 suspect Ghasoub al Abrash Ghalyoun. A real estate developer in Spain, Ghalyoun is accused of taking amateur video while on vacation in the US and providing it to members of al Qaeda to aid in the 9/11 terrorist attacks . Some legal analysts believe [...]

Three women Russian judges are nearly halfway through Mikhail Khodorkovsky's verdict document Tuesday after seven days of reading. The verdict-reading has presented evidence that will most likely result in a conviction for Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of Russia's largest oil firm, Yukos , as well as one time richest man in Russia. Khodorkovsky faces charges [...]

A judge in Italy on Tuesday ordered that trained explosives expert Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed face trial in Milan on charges separate from the Madrid attack. Investigators have accused Ahmed, whose trial is expected to begin on October 8 2005, of preparing terrorist attacks in Italy and elsewhere in Europe when he was arrested last [...]

New Jersey police said Tuesday that they were only in the initial stages of an investigation that has so far revealed data theft from over 700,000 account holders from four major banks in the US. Ten arrests have been made in the scam affecting Bank of America , Wachovia , Commerce Bancorp official website], and [...]

FBI lawyers speaking in front of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday asked for sweeping new powers to seize records from private citizens and businesses in terrorism investigations without first obtaining a judge's approval. The FBI seeks the power to issue administrative subpoenas to get information quickly about impending terrorist threats and [...]