Newly appointed Italian cabinet minister Aldo Brancher resigned Monday amidst controversy over an embezzlement indictment. Brancher, appointed on June 18 after being nominated by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, unsuccessfully attempted to use his status as a government official to delay proceedings against him in a banking case under a controversial new immunity law . Berlusconi [...]
Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court Monday sentenced US geologist Xue Feng to eight years in prison for collecting intelligence and illegally providing state secrets. Xue was also fined 200,000 yuan. The court stated that Xue received a database which contained the coordinates for oil wells owned by the China National Petroleum Corporation while conducting [...]
Three administrative law judges with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board have denied a request by the Obama administration and the US Department of Energy (DOE) to withdraw the government’s application for a license to construct a permanent nuclear waste repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The DOE filed a motion [...]
The US territory of American Samoa on Saturday concluded a constitutional convention in which delegates considered proposed changes to the territory’s 1967 constitution that would shift authority from the federal government to local officials by removing much of the authority of the US Department of the Interior (DOI) over territorial affairs. Specific changes would remove [...]
A Syrian military court Sunday sentenced lawyer and activist Haitham Maleh to three years in prison for campaigning against the emergency rule under which Syria has been governed since 1963 . Defense lawyers for Maleh said he was charged with “weakening national morale” . The 78-year old former judge was put on trial in October [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit released a redacted opinion Thursday holding that evidence against Algerian Guantanamo Bay detainee Belkacem Bensaya must be reviewed to determine if he was “part of” al Qaeda . The three-judge panel overturned the district court ruling, which held that Bensaya’s imprisonment by the US [...]
Hundreds of Spaniards gathered outside Spain’s Constitutional Court in Madrid Saturday to protest recently approved changes to the country’s abortion laws. Demonstrators representing roughly 60 anti-abortion organizations , including Right to Live (DV) , assembled to challenge what they describe as “the most radical abortion law in Europe,” which will allow abortions up to 14 [...]
Suspected Nazi collaborator Charles Zentai won an appeal on Friday in the Federal Court of Australia denying a request from the Hungarian government to extradite the now-Australian citizen in order to stand trial in Hungary for war crimes. Zentai is accused of killing Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in 1944 in Budapest for failing to wear [...]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in two judgments Thursday that under EU law a pregnant worker temporarily transferred or granted leave on account of her pregnancy is entitled to pay equivalent to the average earnings she received before her pregnancy. The ECJ also called for improvements at the workplace for the safety and [...]
US President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday imposing a new round of sanctions on Iran for failure to disband the nation’s uranium enrichment program. Under the new legislation, sanctions will be imposed against parties investing in Iran’s petroleum development and aiding in exporting the petroleum. Financial institutions that facilitate certain activities in Iran, including the [...]
