The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board created by the US Congress in December 2004 implementing a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission will finally begin to function later this month when the Board's five members are sworn in at the White House and convene their first session, according to Newsweek magazine Sunday. In association with [...]

Lawmakers on Sunday urged an overhaul of the US government investment review process that approved the takeover by United Arab Emirates-owned Dubai Ports World of operating rights at several United States ports. The current process is overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) , under the US Treasury Department. Senate [...]

A new report from Amnesty International (AI) concludes that the arbitrary detention of thousands of people in Iraq facilitates abuses of prisoners. Using official figures from the Multi-National Force in Iraq , AI says there are more than 14,000 security detainees in coalition custody – mostly at Camp Bucca and Abu Ghraib – but many [...]

In a speech to the East Tennessee Economic Council, US National Nuclear Security Administration head Linton Brooks , has publicly acknowledged for the first time the Bush administration's intent to abandon "nuclear disarmament." Brooks said Friday that the goal of complete nuclear disarmament will no longer be an active component of US foreign policy as [...]

The Sudanese government has threatened to withdraw from the African Union (AU) if a proposed takeover of the AU's peacekeeping mission in the Darfur region by the United Nations goes into effect. The Sudan Tribune Saturday quoted a spokesman for the Sudanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs as saying, "We will resist this attempt and respond [...]

Leaders of the both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have sharply criticized the US prison at Guantanamo Bay as international pressure builds to close down the controversial facility that currently contains almost 500 individuals the US government has termed enemy combatants. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams , the English head of the worldwide Anglican [...]

US District Judge John Gleeson Friday temporarily stayed an injunction that would have changed New York's unique system of nominating its elected state trial court judges in political conventions rather than primaries. Gleeson ruled in January that the practice of nominating judges to the New York Supreme Court was unconstitutional because voters were denied the [...]

Parts of a broader, more human picture of the Guantanamo detainees, their frustrations and the cases against them have begun to emerge from the depths of over 5000 pages of documentation on over 300 specific detainees released by the Pentagon late Friday under court order. Some of the papers had been previously released with names [...]

Two separate press-sponsored investigations reported Saturday show a marked increase in secret proceedings in US federal courts in the last few years, mirroring a general trend towards secrecy in the executive branch of government during the Bush presidency. Figures tallied by the Administrative Office of the US Courts for AP show that some 5,116 defendants [...]

The Manila Daily Tribune reported Saturday that it has been charged with sedition in the wake of the Friday lifting of President Gloria Arroyo's state of emergency . The offices of the paper, known for its sharp criticism of the government, were raided February 25 while the state of emergency decree was still in force. [...]