US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Thursday reaffirmed the US commitment to ending what she called the "genocide" in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, telling members of the House International Relations Committee that "the United States is appalled by the ongoing atrocities that have persisted" there. Senior US officials first described the Darfur situation as genocide [...]

Leading Friday's environmental law news, the US Environmental Protection Agency has begun efforts to secure a multilateral agreement to reduce air pollution in the central US. The Blue Skyways Collaborative was introduced at a meeting of representatives from the EPA, 8 states, corporate interests, agriculture associations, environmental groups, Canada and Mexico. Blue Skyways, which roughly [...]

US District Judge David G. Trager has granted the US Justice Department's request for dismissal of a civil rights lawsuit filed by Maher Arar , in what is believed to be the first suit filed challenging US extraordinary rendition practices. The Syrian-born Canadian was detained in 2002 during a layover at New York's JFK airport [...]

A New York appeals court has ruled that the state's marriage law, which allows marriage between a man and a woman but not between same-sex couples, is constitutional. The 5-0 decision covers three separate cases filed on behalf of same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses. The couples argued that the Domestic Relations Law , [...]

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for the United States to close its Guantanamo Bay detention facility as soon as possible, reiterating the conclusions of a 54 page report released Thursday by a UN-appointed independent panel. Annan said:There is a lot in the report, and I cannot say that I necessarily agree with everything [...]

The Republican leaders of two key Congressional committees said Thursday that they would not undertake direct probes of the president's NSA warrantless surveillance program . The US House Intelligence Committee said it would conduct a review of federal surveillance laws but its members are already disagreeing about the scope of their inquiry. Rep. Heather Wilson [...]

Leading Friday's international brief, four high profile Egyptian judges who spoke out against fellow colleagues accused of rigging votes in last year's presidential elections have been stripped of judicial immunity and are scheduled to be questioned by Egyptian police officials on charges of slander against government officials. The judges, including the deputy judge of the [...]

A UK High Court judge has ruled that three UK residents detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 can seek a court order requiring the British government to petition the US government for their release. The UK government has thusfar said that it cannot represent non-British citizens at the camp, even if they [...]

As ongoing unrest stemming from the controversy over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad continues, Pakistani police on Friday placed radical Islamic leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed under house arrest to prevent him from giving his usual Friday sermon at a mosque in Lahore. Saeed is the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militia, which has been designated [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Brian Concannon Jr., Director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, says that the negotiated deal over the counting of disputed ballots which has made Rene Preval the president-elect of Haiti has correctly put the most popular candidate in office but has done so at considerable cost to his [...]