Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) killed the self-confessed mastermind of the 2004 Beslan school siege along with 12 other militants in an early morning special operation Monday, according to Nikolai Patrushev , head of the FSB. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed relief that security forces killed Shamil Basayev , who was also responsible for a [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Dr. Laurent Pech, Jean Monnet Lecturer in European Union Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, says that while it's too early to abandon the troubled European constitution, significant strategic and political adjustments are required before it can secure ratification by enough states to bring it into force… Is the EU [...]
The US military has decided to apply the Geneva Conventions to all detainees held in US military custody around the world, according to Tuesday's Financial Times. The move marks a sharp reversal from a previous policy classifying detainees as "enemy combatants" outside the protections of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The provision, often called [...]
In re: Search of the Rayburn House Office Building Room Number 2113, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, July 10, 2006 . Read the frull text of the opinion. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Schulman v. Attorney General, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, July 10, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The US military on Monday released the identities of five Army soldiers charged in connection with the rape and murder of an Iraqi woman and the murders of several of her relatives in March at Mahmudiya , 20 miles south of Baghdad. The soldiers and the charges against them are: Spc. James P. Barker – [...]
A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Monday in six cases focusing on same-sex marriage – the first time a California appeals court has considered the issue. The state Attorney General's Office argued that California should be allowed to maintain its traditional definition of marriage as the union of a [...]
US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) told reporters Monday that floor action on legislation governing procedures for military commissions at Guantanamo Bay is unlikely until after Labor Day. Frist said that Senate Republicans are busy discussing the legislation with Democrats and the White House and that several Senate committees with jurisdiction over the issue [...]
AP is reporting that a federal judge has ruled that an FBI raid on the congressional office of US Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) was legal and has denied Jefferson's request that documents seized during the raid be returned to him. 4:45 PM ET – After the FBI raided his congressional office as part of an [...]
The parliament of Egypt passed a new press law on Monday but removed a particularly controversial provision that would have allowed journalists to be imprisoned for reporting on alleged financial impropriety by public officials. Still, journalists and rights groups fear that other provisions threaten the freedom of the press. Although the law abolishes jail sentences [...]
