The US Senate has passed a credit card-company backed bankruptcy bill that will make it harder for many Americans to clear their debts. The vote on passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was 74-25 .

Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, including the Optional Protocal concerning the compulsory settlement of disputes before the International Court of Justice, United Nations, 1963 . Read the full text of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and Optional Protocols. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Speaking Thursday at a global anti-terrorism summit in Madrid slated to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for terrorism to be outlawed in all its forms, but insisted that the fight against terror must be consistent with the protection of human rights:…terrorism is a threat [...]

Chuck McGee, the former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party , was sentenced to seven months in prison and $2,000 in fines on Thursday after pleading guilty to jamming Democratic phone lines during the 2002 general election. McGee had pleaded guilty to conspiring to make anonymous calls with the intent to annoy or [...]

Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin defended his country’s human rights record since the formal dissolution of US occupation last year at a press conference Thursday, reminding critics that Iraq’s treatment of human rights issues is far better than it had been under Saddam Hussein. Iraq has been in a state of emergency since November, [...]

AP is reporting that a judge has rejected a bid by the Florida's Department of Children and Families to intervene in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. The Department had sought an additional 60-day stay of the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube so it could investigate allegations of "abuse, neglect or exploitation" by her husband, Michael [...]

A man who committed suicide during a traffic stop Wednesday evening in Wisconsin claimed in a suicide note found by police that he killed the husband and mother of US District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow last week. The man, Bart Ross, had apparently sent a letter to Chicago television station WMAQ in which he described [...]

Just ten days after his resignation from the post, Omar Karami has been reappointed as prime minister by Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a surprising move that has angered opposition leaders. Syrian-backed Karami announced that he wants to form a government of national unity, but opposition politicians announced that will refuse to participate in Karami’s government. [...]

US District Judge Jack B. Weinstien Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of millions of Vietnamese that claim American chemical companies committed war crimes by supplying the military with Agent Orange, a chemical agent containing dioxin, a highly toxic substance that causes cancer and birth defects. In a lengthy opinion , Weinstein stated there [...]

The UN Security Council has urged government officials in Haiti to curb human rights violations and expedite the releases of political leaders currently held in prison. In a statement Wednesday the Council urged the interim Haitian government to calm violence in the area in preparation for elections scheduled for later this year. UN peacekeepers have [...]