The US military referred charges Monday against Army Capt. Carl Bjork, accused by several Iraqi detainees of ordering the killings of two Iraqi civilians in 2006. The charges against Bjork include one count of reckless endangerment and two counts of premeditated murder. The accusers are three Iraqi police officers and a former Iraqi Intel officer [...]
The trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday resumed the trial of Serbian nationalist Volislav Seselj after it had been delayed for nearly a year over fears that witnesses were being intimidated. In order to protect their identities, the chamber will examine the remaining witnesses behind closed doors. [...]
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed new charges Tuesday against Bank of America (BOA) , alleging that the company failure to disclose to its shareholders "extraordinary losses" at Merrill Lynch prior to the merger of the two companies. The SEC's complaint charges BOA with violating Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of [...]
Zarko Markovic : "When Croatia filed its genocide suit against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, the political implications of that move might have seemed much easier to predict than its legal consequences. With both wartime leaders, Milosevic and Tudjman, still holding their leading positions, political relations between the two countries were strained and [...]
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled 8-1 in NRG Power Marketing v. Maine Public Utilities that the Mobile-Sierra doctrine applies when an entity not party to an interstate electricity contract contests the contract as not being "just and reasonable" as required by Section 206 of the Federal Power Act . Under the Mobile-Sierra doctrine, [...]
Lyric Thompson : "Last week Sudan celebrated an ironic anniversary. In name only, it was the fifth anniversary of peace – specifically, the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA), the official armistice signed to end one of Africa's longest-running civil wars in 2005. The CPA was supposed to signal the end of a war that is estimated [...]
The leader of France's conservative party introduced legislation Tuesday to the National Assembly that would ban wearing of the burqa in public and make it punishable by 750 euros. Jean-Francois Cope , leader of the Union for Popular Movement (UMP) in the National Assembly, is leading the movement in the legislature , spurred on by [...]
Spanish Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska ruled on Tuesday that Basque separatist group ETA had tried three times to assassinate former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in 2001 but had failed. Grande-Marlaska detailed the three assassination attempts as part of a description of the alleged crimes of ETA leader Pedro Maria Olano Zabala, who was arrested [...]
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a superseding indictment Tuesday against alleged Somali pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, claiming that he led the takeover of two additional ships. Muse pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) . The [...]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that searches performed by police without legitimate suspicion are illegal. The ECHR found that British police had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights when they stopped and searched two individuals in 2003 under the Terrorism Act 2000 . Under Article 8, everyone [...]
