Russian President Vladimir Putin formally suspended Russia's participation in the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty Saturday, signing a presidential decree prohibiting NATO inspection and verification at Russian military facilities as well as ending conventional weapons limitations. Russia said the step was necessary due to "extraordinary circumstances," a reference to US plans to locate [...]

A group of six Democratic senators sent a letter to the US State Department Friday, urging Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take more steps to ensure that detainees transferred out of Guantanamo Bay will not be subjected to torture. The letter, signed by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Barack Obama (D-IL), Patrick [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Friday announced the proposed launch of two oversight offices dedicated to reviewing the DOJ's National Security Division and the FBI's compliance with privacy laws, saying that the new offices will expand the scope of its oversight beyond the DOJ's "traditional oversight role" [...]

US Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Glenn A. Fine has urged the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to strengthen the role of the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) by eliminating jurisdictional limitations on the inspector general preventing the OIG from investigating alleged wrongdoing against the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney [...]

Andrew Wood, Pitt Law '08, files from Manila: As governments around the world work hard to implement legislation to aid in fighting terrorism, some common effects of such legislation are predictable and even inevitable; it is the nature of any anti-terrorism measure to both empower the executive branch and detract from civil rights. People are [...]

US House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) issued a subpoena Friday to the Republican National Committee (RNC) to turn over any emails on the US Attorney firings sent by White House officials from RNC-sponsored accounts. Conyers also warned former White House counsel Harriet Miers that she may be subjected to contempt of Congress proceedings [...]

A former Rwandan mayor Friday pleaded guilty to a single count of extermination , a crime against humanity, as part of a plea deal International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that eliminated eight other charges including genocide, torture and rape. Juvenal Rugambarara apologized for his actions during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide , and promised to "join [...]

The prosecution in the Jose Padilla terrorism conspiracy case rested Friday after nine weeks of presenting witness testimony and wiretap evidence to jurors. The final witness for the prosecution, an FBI linguist, testified that the name and telephone number of Padilla co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun were in Padilla's possession when he was arrested. The linguist [...]

The Brazilian federal court has issued an arrest warrant for exiled business tycoon Boris Berezovsky on charges of money laundering, Russian state news agency Itar-Tass reported Friday. Brazil also asked Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant. The case is related to a Berezovsky-linked sponsor of Brazil's Corinthians soccer club . In 2004, the sponsor [...]

The total number of aliens detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) annually for immigration violations jumped from approximately 95,000 to 283,000 between 2001 and 2006, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) . The GAO said the rising number of detainees has led to significant overcrowding in 4 of 23 [...]