The UK Sunday Times reports that an investigation of US-based energy company Halliburton has revealed that the company violated US trade sanctions against Iran. The corporation once headed by now-Vice President Dick Cheney apparently sold oil mining equipment to Iran through its off-shore interests in the UK, the Cayman Islands, and Sweden. Halliburton says that its conduct did not violate US-Iran trade sanctions [PDF] because the subsidiaries were operated independently and no US citizens "facilitated" the transactions. Halliburton also contends that the equipment sold was "stock" merchandise, not specifically designed or manufactured for sale to Iran. The FBI and a federal grand jury are currently conducting an independent probe of the deals as requested by US Department of Justice. The Sunday Times has more.

Lifestyle merchandise mogul Martha Stewart says she is adjusting to life at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in an open letter to supporters released on her website Friday. Stewart, convicted last March for lying to investigators about a suspicious stock trade, said that the minimum security prison camp for women "is like an old fashioned college campus-- without the freedom, of course." She also indicated that "I'll be making postings now and then" to the website. AP has more. Further coverage of the Martha Stewart case is available on JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that fear of a terrorist attack is not a justification to search protestors. Authorities began requiring protestors at the so-called School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, known formally as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, to pass through metal detectors after the September 11th terrorist attacks, but a unanimous three-judge panel held Friday that the searches "eviscerated the Fourth Amendment" The court reasoned, "in the absence of some reason to believe that international terrorists would target or infiltrate this protest, there is no basis for using Sept. 11 as an excuse for searching the protesters." Read the full text of the opinion here [PDF]. The protesters gather annually to protest the School, which they maintain trains Latin American soldiers to violate the human rights of people in their home countries. The protest group SOA Watch has material on the appeals court ruling. AP has more.

Japan said Saturday that it would examine Peru's latest request for the extradition of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, now living in self-imposed exile in Japan. The extradition request cites embezzlement and forgery accusations against the one-time Peruvian leader of Japanese descent. It also details Fujimori's alleged role as chief of a criminal organization during his presidency from 1990-2000. The organization, known as the Colina group, has been responsible for the murders of 25 people. This is Peru's second extradition bid. Fujimori obtained Japanese citizenship in 2000, and Japan has hestitated to extradite him without a formal extradition treaty. Fujimori has denied the charges against him and may run for re-election on Peru's 2006 presidential ballot. AFP has more. Fujimori offers his perspective on the charges and proceedings on his own website (primarily in Spanish).

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state's mandatory seat belt law was not unconstitutionally vague, even though it 'was hardly the model of clarity.' Read the opinion here. The law had been contested for requiring that certain vehicles meet detailed seat belt specifications that are difficult to locate. The state Supreme Court ruled, however, that there was a presumption of constitutionality that attached to the law, and that the law was such that an ordinary citizen reading the statute would understand that there is a general requirement to wear a seatbelt. The Court also held that stopping an individual solely for a seat belt violation is valid under the law as amended in the state of Washington. The Seattle Post Intelligencer has more.

The US State Department has announced that Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'al-Jihad (BBC News profile here), the terror group allegedly run by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi and which has claimed responsibility for the murders and beheadings of several Americans in Iraq, has been formally designated a terrorist organization under the US Immigration and Nationality Act. The radical Muslim group had already been listed as a terrorist organization by the UN Al-Quaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 [PDF] (official list here). State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday that Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'al-Jihad has also been termed a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 and has been submitted for inclusion on the UN Sanctions Committee. The new classifications make it illegal for a United States citizen to provide material support to the group, freeze all financial assests that are under US jurisdiction, and block travel rights of individuals identified as members of the organization. If the organization is included on the Al-Quaida and Taliban Sanctions List, UN member-states are obligated to freeze all assets, prevent arms sales to members of the organization, and block the travel of its members. Member-states are also obligated to pursue all domestic criminal sanctions that are appropriate to any individual on the list in their jurisdiction. Read the State Department press release here.

President Bush signed the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 [PDF] into law Saturday. The Act, signature of which was originally expected Thursday, creates an Anti-Semitism office within the State Department and mandates an annual review and report on anti-Semitism around the world, in much the same way that the Department already reports on human rights and religious freedom. Partly because of the existence of those reports and their mandates, State Department officials had objected to the new Act as creating a "bureaucratic nuisance" that would actually hinder the Department's ongoing investigations. In what could be construed as either a last-minute effort to avoid the Act's signature, or damage-control in the face of any suggestion that the Department was not concerned with the anti-Semitism problem, State issued a press release Friday declaring that it was "committed to combating anti-Semitism throughout the world and is proud of its many accomplishments. In addition to the annual International Religious Freedom and Human Rights Reports, which detail patterns and incidents of anti-Semitism world-wide, we have undertaken a number of specific and important actions to fight this scourge." JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the Act and objections to it here. Read the official White House press release here.

The African Union has announced that the deployment of troops to the Darfur region of Sudan scheduled for Sunday will be postponed about a week. The first troops were to come from Rwanda, but an official said Saturday that logistical problems had yet to be solved, preventing the deployment of the partial battalion. Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande said that the troops would be deployed as soon as possible. The troops will be reinforced by the deployment of a Nigerian battalion to be in place by October 30, according to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is the current head of the AU. The AU force will eventually comprise 5 battalions from various African countries. The AU was authorized to expand its troop deployment by the UN Security Council in response to the expanding humanitarian crisis in the area. UN World Health Organization officials released new figures on Friday estimating the number of deaths due solely to hunger and disease in the region since conflict began to be over 70,000, and that tens of thousands will continue to die each month unless conditions rapidly improve. Sudanese officials have hotly contested these figures, claiming that the total of health related deaths is only 7000. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the Sudan situation. The Sudan Tribune has more on the delay of the Rwandan troops here, more on the release of the WHO figures, and more on the denial of those figures by the Sudanese government.

The founding president of the American Muslim Foundation, Abdurahman Alamoudi, received the maximum sentence of 23 years in prison and fines of more than $20,000 Friday after pleading guilty to immigration fraud and illegal transactions with Libya in federal district court in Alexandria, Virgina. In his guilty plea, originally entered in July, Alamoudi also acknowledged involvement in a failed Libyan plot to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Alamoudi has surrendered his American citizenship but will retain permanent resident status in the US. Review the criminal complaint originally filed against Alamoudi [PDF] by the FBI; the indictment is here [PDF]. Read a US Department of Justice press release on Alamoudi's sentencing here. AP has more.