Organic grocer Whole Foods Market agreed to a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Friday over its 2007 merger with rival grocer Wild Oats Market . If approved by the FTC Commissioners, the settlement will require Whole Foods to divest itself of approximately 32 store locations, including 13 operating stores and 19 [...]
A Turkish court ordered the arrest of Cumhuriyet journalist Mustafa Balbay Thursday for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) . Balbay was arrested along with internet publisher Neriman Aydin as part of the ongoing probe into secular group Ergenekon . The Ergenekon probe has been criticized [...]
The US Supreme Court on Friday granted a motion by the US government to dismiss as moot an appeal challenging the indefinite detention of suspected al Qaeda operative Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri . The Court had granted certiorari in December on al-Marri's appeal of a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth [...]
Defense lawyers for former Russian oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Friday sought to have new charges of embezzlement and money laundering against Khordorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev dropped. The two men are accused of illegally taking approximately $20 billion from Russian energy firm OAO Yukos Oil Co. , but challenged the allegations, asserting that the evidence against [...]
Guest commentator Vicheka Lay, a legal consultant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, reflects on the Khmer Rouge trials… In February, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) began the trial of one of the Khmer Rouge's former leaders, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Duch". Guek Eav allegedly committed a large number of human [...]
The European Union (EU) announced Friday that it has entered into an agreement with Kenya to transfer suspected pirates captured by EU counter-pirate operations into Kenyan custody for prosecution. The agreement contains provisions for the nine Somali pirates captured by German forces on Tuesday, and "defines modalities" for any capture of suspected pirates in the [...]
J. Peter Pham : "The decision of Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) this week to issue a warrant of arrest for Sudan's President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including intentionally directing attacks on civilian populations in Darfur and pillaging towns and villages in the [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston on Friday called for an independent investigation into the Thursday killings of Kenyan human rights activists Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulu. The two men were officers for the Oscar Foundation , a group critical of the Kenyan government for its use of [...]
A panel of legal and medical experts headed by Spanish Minister of Equality Bibiano Aido on Wednesday proposed sweeping reforms to Spain's current abortion laws. The panel contends that women should have the right to choose to abort during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Where the fetus is malformed or where the mother faces [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville said Friday that his office may investigate whether Sudan's expulsion of foreign aid agencies is a possible breach of human rights law or war crime. Colville said that such an investigation had not yet begun, but strongly criticized Sudan for ordering the groups to leave. Also Friday, UN [...]
