The Australian Government and Prime Minister John Howard committed Sunday to passing new anti-terror laws before Christmas after weekend meetings to discuss a revised draft of a proposed anti-terror bill. Howard gave premiers until Monday to respond to the revision after the initial Friday deadline passed, and hopes to introduce the final draft to the [...]

In a bid to facilitate the transition of Iraq detention operations to Iraqi security forces, the US military has opened a new prison near the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq. Named Fort Suse, the facility can hold more than 1,700 detainees; it received its first inmates from Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca on [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague is this week expected to make a final ruling on a bid by accused former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to return to political life in Kosovo pending his scheduled trial in 2007 . The ICTY allowed Haradinaj to return to politics two weeks [...]

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court has received the first 30 appeals from Jewish families evacuated from Gaza under the Israeli disengagement plan who are complaining about low compensation amounts and delays in payments. The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel is representing the evacuees, who argue that the Evacuation Compensation Law passed earlier this year [...]

The criminal court system in New Orleans still faces an uphill battle as judges and attorneys try to piece together what is left of the 3,000 trials pending before Hurricane Katrina swept through the city over two months ago. The courthouse basement of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court held guns, drugs and other items [...]

The UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said Sunday that the results from the country's September legislative election are being delayed because of investigations into fraud complaints . The final counts were originally supposed to be announced on October 19, but the slow pace of vote counting pushed the announcement date back to the beginning [...]

Federal appellate judges Samuel Alito and Michael Luttig are reportedly at the top of President Bush's list of possible US Supreme Court nominees to replace the withdrawn Harriet Miers as the President reconsiders the nomination at Camp David this weekend. Republicans have said Bush's short list is similar to the one he reviewed before he [...]

Supplemental Report on Bayoil Diversions of Iraqi Oil and Related Oversight Failures, US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Relations Committee Subcommittee on Investigations, October 31, 2005 ]. Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

American Civil Liberties Union v. Alaska, October 28, 2005 . Excerpt: The governmental interests of cost control, administrative efficiency, and promotion of marriage are legitimate, but the absolute denial of benefits to public employees with same-sex domestic partners is not substantially related to these governmental interests… We therefore conclude, applying minimum scrutiny, that the challenged [...]

At least five people were shot by police Saturday as violence again erupted in Kenya's Western Province over the country's highly controversial draft constitution . Security forces fired upon a crowd in the city of Kisumu while dispersing a riot during a pro-constitution rally held by four cabinet ministers. Police said mobs set fire to [...]