Presiding US District Judge Leonie Brinkema Thursday warned prosecutors in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui against making any indication to jury members that Moussaoui was obligated to tell FBI agents about his terrorist connections after his arrest in August 2001 for violating immigration laws, less than a month before the September 11 attacks. Brinkema [...]

Letter on force-feeding and restraint of Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers, Dr. David Nicholl and others, The Lancet, March 9, 2006 . Read the full text of the letter . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Kevin Baum and Ricardo Alvarado : "The Pro Bono Project's (PBP) mission is to provide free quality civil legal services to the poor by engaging volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono legal services. The Pro Bono Project has also expanded services to include some direct legal assistance. Kevin and I along with two Loyola Chicago [...]

The European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg announced Thursday that it has received an application from French Muslims asking it to declare the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in French newspapers an infringement of the non-discrimination provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights . The complaint, originally filed in February [...]

US Defense Department officials said Thursday afternoon that reports originating from earlier statements by a military spokesman in Iraq that the US intended to close Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison within three months before handing the facility back to the Iraqi government were "premature". Officials told DOD's American Forces Press Service in a story reported on [...]

The Tennessee Senate on Thursday passed a bill to remove from Tennessee constitutional law any guarantees of a woman's right to abortion. The vote was 24-9. Under Tennessee law, both chambers of the General Assembly must approve the change in two separate votes over the next two years before voters have a chance to rule [...]

In an extension of an earlier lawsuit , the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed motions in federal court in New York Thursday asking the court to immediately stop the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program . Both groups said they were prompted by indications that GOP senators are working with [...]

In an open letter in the British medical journal Lancet , more than 250 doctors from seven countries have urged the US government to ensure that detainees at Guantanamo Bay are examined by independent physicians and that methods such as force-feeding through the use of restraint chairs are not continued. Amnesty International has also urged [...]

An official of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council has confirmed that Iraqi authorities executed 13 insurgents by hanging Thursday in Baghdad, the first official executions of insurgents carried out in the country since the restoration of the death penalty in 2004. The insurgents were said to have been convicted in separate trials earlier this year. Three [...]

President Bush has signed legislation to renew the USA PATRIOT Act , making permanent several sunsetting provisions in the anti-terror law, extending two provisions until 2009, and incorporating a number of new rights protections. Bush approved two separate but related bills: the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 , the actual renewal that [...]