The US House of Representatives on Saturday approved by voice vote the Terrorism Risk Insurance Extension Act of 2005 , which will extend for two years the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 , under which the federal government guarantees insurance coverage for catastrophic losses caused by terror attacks. The renewal legislation also passed by [...]

Texas Judge Pat Priest said Saturday that he will not immediately consider the request of Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) to separate criminal charges against him. Earlier this month, Priest threw out criminal conspiracy charges against DeLay, leaving two money laundering charges . DeLay has asked the judge to sever the charges, allowing a quick trial, [...]

US government attorneys have asked the US Supreme Court to deny certiorari in the Jose Padilla case , where the court would decide whether an enemy combatant can be held indefinitely without charge. Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber, was detained in 2002 and had challenged his continued detention with the US Court of Appeals for [...]

Anti-Terrorism Act (No. 2) 2005, An Act to amend the law relating to terrorist acts, and for other purposes, published as approved by royal assent December 16, 2005. Read the full text of the act.

Jose Padilla v. C.T. Hanft, Supreme Court of the United States, December 10, 2005 . Read the full text of the brief . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, passed by the US House of Representatives, December 16, 2005 . Read the full text of the legislation . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, the outgoing head of a UN committee investigating the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , said Saturday that he is convinced Syrian authorities are responsible for Hariri's death. This was the first time that Mehlis unequivocally accused Syria of the assassination since the formal UN probe [...]

An anti-bribery panel for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) urged governments on Friday to dig deeper into evidence of kickbacks and corruption reported by an independent UN commission investigating the UN's now-defunct Iraq oil-for-food program . Only 11 of the 40 countries whose citizens have been implicated by the inquiry have requested [...]

Britain ran a secret prison at Bad Nenndorf in northwest Germany that tortured and starved to death inmates for two years after the end of World War II, according to a Saturday report from the Guardian. Inmates included Nazi party members, former members of the SS, suspected spies, and successful businessmen who had done well [...]

Iraqi authorities began to ease tight election security measures Saturday by lifting the ban on traffic and opening all borders except for the border with Syria, which will reopen in a few days. Thursday's election drew as many as 11 million people to the polls, or 70 percent of Iraq's population. International observers have praised [...]