The US House Financial Services Committee voted 49-14 Wednesday to approve new regulations governing investment rating agencies. The Accountability and Transparency in Rating Agencies Act , sponsored by Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) , modifies the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 , giving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the authority to monitor and punish ratings agencies. [...]
The Kuwaiti Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that female lawmakers are not required to wear the hijab , or traditional Muslim headscarf. The ruling was in response to a petition brought by four voters seeking to invalidate the election of two of the four women who became the first female members of the Kuwaiti National Assembly [...]
Virginia Sloan : "The recent uproar surrounding Ohio's failed attempt to execute Romell Broom, who was convicted of murdering Tryna Middleton, highlights the continuing problems with lethal injection in Ohio, and elsewhere around the country. If the state is to continue using the death penalty, the state must comply with the "quick and painless" standard [...]
An Italian appeals court on Tuesday upheld the bribery conviction of David Mills , a British barrister and former lawyer to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . Mills was sentenced in February to a four-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly accepting USD $600,000 in bribes for offering false testimony at two trials in 1997 and [...]
A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's decision to ease restrictions on stem cell research . Nightlight Christian Adoptions claimed that the removal of restrictions on stem cell research would lower the number of embryos available for adoption. Judge Royce Lamberth [...]
A lawyer for Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said Tuesday that a criminal libel suit has been filed against the leader of human rights group Memorial , according to media reports. Oleg Orlov, who accused Kadyrov of responsibility for the July death of Memorial journalist Natalia Estemirova , could face a maximum sentence of three years [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said Tuesday that the use of unmanned warplanes by the US to carry out attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan may be illegal. Alston criticized the US policy in a report to the UN General Assembly's human rights committee and then elaborated at a press [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed Tuesday to an en banc rehearing of a Department of Justice (DOJ) request to dismiss a suit against a company that allegedly provided logistical support for CIA rendition flights. At issue is whether the state secrets privilege can prevent the suit from going forward. A [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday resumed proceedings against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic , one day after adjourning because Karadzic failed to appear for the opening of his war crimes trial. Presiding judge O-gon Kwon urged Karadzic to attend the trial, but later announced that the ICTY would [...]
A French court convicted several high-profile defendants Tuesday for their roles in illegal arms sales to Angola during the 1990s, known as Angolagate . Among those convicted were former interior minister and current senator Charles Pasqua , who was found guilty of illegal lobbying, and Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, son of former French president Francois Mitterrand, who [...]
