The British House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee released a report Wednesday recommending that the government "bring forward proposals" to the European Commission "for an extension of copyright term for sound recordings to at least 70-years." The current British audio recordings copyright limit is limited to 50 years from the time of the [...]

The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR) filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) Wednesday requesting the public disclosure of a terrorist watch list containing more than 6,000 names. LCCR requested the document in 2005, and maintains that there is no legal [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday extended the suspension of the Supreme Judicial Council's (SJC) inquiry into the alleged misconduct of ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry , denying a government request to resume proceedings and dismiss petitions filed by Chaudhry. Chaudhry has challenged the legality of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's March 9 order suspending [...]

Police in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe , were seen assaulting and arresting protesters who had taken to the streets Wednesday to express dissatisfaction with newly proposed constitutional amendments. Witnesses reported that at least 20 protesters were arrested and three were severely beaten by police. At least one protester had to be taken to [...]

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report Wednesday criticizing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Customs and Border Protection Agency's Automated Targeting System , which the GAO says violates federal privacy laws by allowing personal information "to be used in multiple prescreening procedures and transferred among various CPB prescreening systems in [...]

The California Supreme Court denied review of a lower court ruling Wednesday, effectively allowing the continuation of a state-sponsored program for stem cell research operated by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine . A California state appeals court upheld the validity of the program in February, writing that it "suffers from no constitutional or other [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says that the suspension of Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has pushed the country's lawyers and top judge into an unprecedented confrontation with the executive power of President Pervez Musharraf… A lawyers’ mutiny is making history in Pakistan. The sight of a “strong [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) considered replacing at least 26 of 93 US Attorneys between February 2005 and December 2006, a much higher number than previously acknowledged by officials, according to a report in Thursday's Washington Post. Documents not publicly disclosed indicate that Kyle Sampson , former chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto [...]

Sandra and Roberta Cote-Whitacre et al. v. Department of Public Health, Suffolk Superior Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 10, 2007 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Suspended Romanian President Traian Basescu Wednesday continued to speak out against political corruption while facing a Saturday impeachment referendum. Basescu was suspended by the opposition-dominated parliament in April for allegedly abusing his powers; earlier this month, the nation's Constitutional Court upheld an opposition-sponsored bill making it easier to remove Basescu by reducing the number of [...]