The US Department of Justice released an inventory of 171 internal documents withheld from Congress Thursday, resisting congressional demands that the department disclose and release emails and memos involving the controversial firing of eight US attorneys . The withheld documents involve communications between members of Congress as well as internal department communications, many of which [...]
Two Canadian law professors and human rights activists have written to the International Criminal Court (ICC) , asking it to investigate "possible war crimes" by top Canadian defence officials. Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia and William Schabas , now at the National University of Ireland, sent a letter to ICC chief prosecutor [...]
A Utah-based anti-spam technology company filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Alexandria Thursday in an effort to identify the people behind so-called "spambots" , programs that search the Internet for e-mail addresses to sell to spammers. Unspam Technologies Inc. operates a spam harvester-tracking Web site called Project Honey Pot that has collected thousands [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) announced the transfer of two more Guantanamo Bay detainees Thursday – one to Afghanistan and another to Morocco, reducing to approximately 380 the number of detainees remaining at Guantanamo. According to a DOD press release , these latest transfers are a demonstration of the United States’ desire not to [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech to both houses of the Russian parliament Thursday that he was putting Russia's implementation of the terms of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty on hold in the face of what he called a US-led NATO military "build up" in Europe, and would "look at the [...]
The White House admitted Thursday to holding about 20 briefings throughout 2006 and 2007 for federal agency employees to discuss the electability of Republican candidates, meetings similar to a January presentation that critics allege violated the Hatch Act . The Hatch Act prohibits the use of government resources for political purposes, and the US Office [...]
The US Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday proposed a new rule for the calculation of power plant emissions subject to additional pollution controls, adopting a standard recently criticized by the Supreme Court in a ruling earlier this month. The new Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Nonattainment New Source Review: Emission [...]
Forty top members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood went before a secret military court in Egypt Thursday on charges of terrorism and money laundering. Defense lawyers announced that they would boycott the proceedings because they were not notified of the trial beforehand and only learned of it from their clients. The defendants — 33 of [...]
The New Hampshire Senate voted 14-10 Thursday in favor a bill allowing same-sex civil unions , sending the legislation on to Gov. John Lynch for signature. The bill, passed by the state House of Representatives earlier this month, would authorize same-sex couples to enter into civil unions with "the same rights, responsibilities, and obligations as [...]
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced in a national address Wednesday that he was postponing until June 24 parliamentary elections originally scheduled for May 27 to avoid funding problems and allow more time for preparation ahead of a vote. The postponement came as Ukraine's Constitutional Court completed its public hearings on the legality of Yushchenko's April [...]
