[JURIST] The European Parliament [official website] announced on Wednesday that it would investigate claims [press release] that the CIA has been illegally detaining and torturing terrorism suspects in European countries or using European air bases as transit points to send suspects to other countries to be tortured, a process called extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive]. The 46-member temporary committee [EU proposal] will have wide powers to call witnesses to investigate the claims, which may result in friction with the US government, which has denied any wrongdoing and consistently defended their actions as proper [JURIST report]. On Tuesday, Switzerland's foreign affairs committee found insufficient evidence that the US held suspects in secret prisons in Europe and voted against formally condemning the US government [JURIST report]. The Times Online has more.