A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday sentenced former Galleon Group hedge fund executive Raj Rajaratnam to 11 years in prison, fined him $10 million and ordered he forfeit an additional $53.8 million. The 11-year sentence was significantly lower than the 24 1/2-year sentence requested by [...]
Libyan forces have arrested nearly 2,500 people who face ongoing torture and detainment without formal charges , Amnesty International (AI) alleged Thursday. Interviews of 300 Libyan prisoners in August and September revealed that many were abducted from their homes without arrest warrants, were beaten and tortured in prison to elicit confessions and are still being [...]
Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Thursday signed into law a controversial bill dissolving religious organizations and requiring re-registration, drawing criticism from international observers. The bill dissolves current registrations and establishes a procedure requiring groups to meet membership thresholds —at least 50 members to register locally, 500 members to register regionally and 5,000 members to register [...]
The US House of Representatives and Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to three free trade agreements, marking the first time in several years that the US has formed a trade partnership. The House and Senate voted in rapid succession to pass the trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, which are predicted by [...]
An alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Adel al-Jubeir , Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the US, may violate the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents , which Iran signed in 1978. The US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it had foiled the plot . [...]
A coalition of civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block South Carolina’s recently passed immigration law . Brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and other civil rights groups, the class action suit claims the new legislation is unconstitutional, inviting racial profiling and interfering with [...]
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced Wednesday that Sudan will adopt an Islamic constitution. The creation of an Islamic state, three months after the official split between Sudan and South Sudan , is intended to more accurately reflect the religious affiliation of its population, which is 98 percent Muslim now that the mainly Christian South Sudan [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Wednesday. In Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Burlington , the court considered whether a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when he was strip searched twice after being arrested for a non-criminal offense and the circumstances did not suggest that [...]
Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to all counts of a criminal indictment charging him for his role in the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. Abdulmutallab, 24, admitted to eight felonies , including [...]
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange on Tuesday submitted a filing in the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit asking the court not to stay the state’s controversial immigration law . The filing was in response to a motion filed last week by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) , which requested that the [...]
