Letter from Counsel to the President Fred F. Fielding, March 20, 2007 . Read the full text of the letter . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The UK Ministry of Defence announced Tuesday that British armed forces will no longer use certain types of cluster bombs . UK Secretary of State for Defence Des Browne said the military will still use "smart" cluster bombs with self-destruct mechanisms in an attempt to strike a balance between providing troops with adequate weapons and [...]

US President George W. Bush warned Congressional Democrats Tuesday to accept his compromise to allow top White House aides to testify about the firings of US Attorneys before the Senate Judiciary Committee . The Senate Judiciary Committee had called for Bush's close ad visors, including former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Deputy Chief of [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of Fry v. Pliler , 06-5247, a case in which the defendant was convicted on two counts of murder following two mistrials. Fry subsequently filed several habeas appeals, arguing the trial court improperly precluded a key defense witness from testifying. The Supreme Court will [...]

Reporter Rafig Tagi and editor Samir Huseinov, both of the newspaper Senet, went on trial Tuesday in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan for allegedly insulting Islam. Both claim the prosecution is politically motivated as authoritarian Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev has a reputation for heavy-handed repression of the media. Violent protests broke out last year [...]

France signed an extradition treaty with China Tuesday in Paris over the objections of human rights groups that oppose China's use of the death penalty. After signing the treaty, Justice Minister Pascal Clement explained that France may refuse extradition of suspects to China for political or military offenses. If a crime is punishable by death [...]

The editor of a website in China that called for political reform has been sentenced to six years in prison by the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province for defaming the government. Zhang Jianhong wrote some 60 critical articles on Aiqinghai.net and other websites before the government shut down the site in March 2006. [...]

A defense lawyer for German Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel has been charged with incitement, attempting to thwart a prosecution, and using banned Nazi symbols during the original trial of Zundel in 2005. According to prosecutors at the Mannheim State Court , Sylvia Stolz repeatedly denied the Holocaust during Zundel's trial, described Jews as "enemy people" and [...]

Baltasar Garzon , an investigating judge for Spain's National Court , said Tuesday that President George W. Bush and his allies eventually should face war crimes charges for their actions in Iraq. In an opinion piece for El Pais, Garzon called the war in Iraq "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent [...]

US Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine told the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Tuesday that the confusion and abuses surrounding the use of National Security Letters (NSL) was "unacceptable and inexcusable." The Federal Bureau of Investigation illegally gathered data from telephone and financial records of both US citizens and foreigners while [...]