Christian leaders in Iraq have warned officials that the draft constitution "opens the door widely" to discrimination of religious minorities in the country. Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly of the Chaldeans met with the Iraqi president and prime minister earlier this week and said that certain parts of the draft constitution were contradictory. In particular, Delly [...]

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina , local law enforcement and federal agents have expressed increasing concern over the damage the storm wreaked on the New Orleans justice system and how quickly it can recover. Among the larger problems faced by the city is the possible loss of evidence in some 3,000 criminal cases that [...]

Expressing concern over the condition of Guantanamo Bay detainees participating in a hunger strike, attorneys for some of the detainees have told District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that the detainees are in worse condition than the military has admitted and asked the judge to oversee the military's management of the hunger strike. Attorneys Tom Wilner and [...]

Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council of the European Union, et al., European Court of First Instance, September 21, 2005 . Read the full text of the opinion here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday called on nations to quickly sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty as he opened the fourth conference on bringing the treaty into force. Annan said countries' inability to agree on the issue was a "significant failure" that the world should be "gravely concerned about." A [...]

A grand jury in Philadelphia on Wednesday issued a 418-page report severely criticizing the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for alleged cover-ups of widespread clergy abuses in the Archdiocese over the course of decades, but handed down no charges due to statute of limitations applying in most cases. The grand jury, convened in 2003, concluded that at [...]

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously approved H.R. 3768 , providing $6 billion in temporary tax relief aimed at helping people and organizations hit by Hurricane Katrina . In particular, the legislation offers $500 tax credits for those providing temporary housing for Katrina victims and raises caps on charitable donations made to charities [...]

US Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter said Wednesday that the US Defense Department was blocking an investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee into a highly-classified Army intelligence program that allegedly identified four of the September 11 hijackers a year prior to the attacks. The Pentagon Tuesday ordered officers and analysts involved with "Able Danger" [...]

Hamdi Issac, one of four suspects in a spate of failed bomb attacks in London on July 21, will be extradited Thursday to the UK, Italian sources reported Wednesday. The Italian high court had previously upheld a ruling that Issac had to be extradited to British authorities within 35 days under a new EU arrest [...]

Court-martial proceedings against Pfc. Lynndie England , 22, one of the highest-profile but lowest-ranking suspects in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, began Wednesday in Fort Hood, Texas, with jury selection and opening statements. England faces seven counts of abuse and conspiracy in connection with actions depicted in widely published photos . Unlike other defendants [...]