US Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-MI) has said that the Bush administration cannot use recent legislation in an attempt to dismiss already filed habeas corpus petitions of Guantanamo Bay detainees . The 2006 defense spending bill , signed into law last week, contained the so-called Graham-Levin Amendment limiting habeas jurisdiction for claims by enemy combatants. [...]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a warning on Thursday that the US is considering referring Iran to the UN Security Council if it continues its plans to resume nuclear fuel research. Iran announced on Tuesday that it would resume its research on January 9 but insists that its program will solely be used [...]

A British judge on Thursday said that Haroon Rashid Aswat , a British citizen wanted in the US on suspicion of setting up a terrorist training camp, could be extradited to the United States. Aswat was arrested in August by Zambian police in connection with the July 7 London bombing attacks . He was later [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on Thursday called for the full respect for international humanitarian and human rights law in the ongoing conflict in Nepal . Last month, Arbour warned that Nepal could face a full-scale armed conflict if the government failed to extend a ceasefire with Maoist rebels , and her [...]

Three leading Republican senators, John W. Warner (R-VA) , John McCain (R-AZ) , and Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) , on Wednesday condemned President Bush's statement that he can bypass the newly-passed ban on torture under his commander in chief powers. The statement made by Bush when he signed the 2006 defense spending bill last week, [...]

Lawyers for former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling on Wednesday afternoon filed a motion to move the location of the trial, where both defendants face charges of conspiracy and fraud in connection with the fall of the energy company. The trial is currently scheduled to begin on January 30 in Houston, but [...]

The Palestinian Election Commission (CEC) , an independent commission that supervises elections in the Palestinian Authority , resigned Thursday in protest of the government's decision to allow 60,000 security forces to cast votes in the January 25 parliamentary elections in their barracks instead of in their districts. After receiving the resignation letter, however, Prime Minister [...]

US Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) , the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee , told President Bush in a letter Wednesday that the White House violated the National Security Act when it withheld information pertaining to the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program from full congressional oversight committees. Harman said the National Security Act [...]

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday appealed to Egyptian authorities in an attempt to prevent the deportation of 654 Sudanese refugees whom Cairo authorities say are in the country illegally. Also Wednesday, US-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to stop the deportations , which were announced [...]

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi defended his annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine Wednesday, and condemned Chinese and South Korean leaders who refused to meet with him because he commemorates Japanese veterans from World War II. Several of those honored by the shrine were executed for committing war crimes, and Koizumi's visits prompted protests by [...]