Human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Liberty, and Reprieve on Monday joined with members of British parliament in calling for an inquiry into the UK role in torture and rendition during the war on terror. In an open letter , the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition demanded British officials conduct a [...]
The US House of Representatives on Sunday voted 219 – 212 to approve a health care reform bill passed by the Senate in December, sending it to President Barack Obama for final approval. The bill, HR 3590 was passed after two hours of debate Sunday evening, gaining no Republican support. The bill's passage was quickly [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists Victor Hansen and Lawrence Friedman of New England Law | Boston say that Congress’s effort to gain greater oversight of certain intelligence actions through the Intelligence Authorization Acts for Fiscal Year 2010 is a clear example of a bipartisan effort to exercise the constitutional responsibilities that it shares with the executive branch [...]
Iraqi election officials on Sunday rejected allegations of fraud and calls for a recount of the ballots from the March 7 parliamentary election . Despite the demands for a recount Saturday by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki , which described the recount as necessary "to preserve political stability and stave off … the resurgence of violence," [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank "illegal," during a press conference Saturday. The statement comes two weeks after Israel announced the construction of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem , where Palestinians hope to establish the capital of their future state. Ban said: The world has condemned Israel's [...]
A New York state appeals court ruled Thursday that the state's courts have jurisdiction to hear requests to annul civil unions performed in other states. The Third Judicial Department Appellate Division reversed a 2008 Schenectady County Supreme Court decision, citing multiple protections New York affords to same-sex partnerships as sufficient to establish competency despite the [...]
Spain should repeal its 1977 amnesty law that bars investigation and prosecution of crimes committed under the Franco regime rather than "prosecuting a judge seeking accountability for past abuses," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday. HRW called for Spain to comply with the 2008 recommendation from the UN Human Rights Committee to end the amnesty [...]
A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday rejected a proposed settlement to address the claims of people with illnesses from working on the World Trade Center (WTC) in the months following 9/11 . Judge Alvin Hellerstein cited concerns over the fairness of claim amounts and the [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Friday that the Federal Reserve must release information about loans it made to banks during April and May 2008, a key moment in the financial crisis. The information was sought by Bloomberg News under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) . The Second Circuit affirmed [...]
The criminal court of Evry on Thursday convicted 14 members of neo-Nazi group Nomad 88. The defendants faced charges for their participation in a combat group, the illegal detention of weapons and explosives, and their responsibility in a shoot-out in 2008. The two leaders of the group, Camille Farout and Thomas Coumont, were sentenced to [...]
