The European Commission announced Thursday that it has initiated infringement proceedings against ten European Union (EU) member states for failing to comply with legislation aimed at reducing emissions of certain harmful airborne particulates called PM10. The EU implemented heightened PM10 standards under last June's Directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe , [...]
Moscow's Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals on Thursday declared void most of the Russian government's tax claims against the British Council , the British government's cultural relations arm, relating to the organization’s in-country operations in 2004-2006. The British Council filed suit last May seeking to void tax claims of over 200 million rubles made by [...]
The chief judge for US military commissions at the Guantanamo Bay detention center rejected Thursday the request of government prosecutors to delay the proceedings against alleged USS Cole plotter Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri . Prosecutors had sought the delay in response to an executive order issued last week by President Barack Obama ordering the closure of [...]
Japan's Ministry of Justice announced Thursday that four death row inmates were executed, despite international pressure to end the practice. The executions are the country's first of 2009. Last year, the Ministry of Justice carried out the execution of 15 prisoners, including three inmates in June , as well as an additional two inmates in [...]
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on Thursday rejected an appeal by relatives of victims of the 1940 Katyn Massacre to reopen investigations into the killings. The court reasoned that the Soviet-era criminal code to be applied to the killings places a ten year statute of limitations on the proceedings. A decade-long official inquiry [...]
A judge for the National Court of Spain ordered an investigation Thursday of former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and six soldiers under his command for alleged crimes against humanity committed in a 2002 attack in the Gaza Strip. Judge Fernando Andreu issued the order in response to a complaint brought by the Palestinian Center [...]
US President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 into law Thursday, extending the deadline for employees to sue their employers for unequal pay discrimination. The law's "clarification" of equal pay protections effectively overturns the 2007 decision of the US Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. , [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed deep concern Thursday over the deteriorating conditions for a quarter of a million Sri Lankans trapped in the conflict-ravaged north, calling for investigations and prosecutions of killings and other human rights abuses. Pillay said she is concerned over reports of human rights abuses, disproportionate displacement, masses [...]
Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman major general Abdel Karim Khalaf said Thursday that the country would not renew a contract allowing Blackwater Worldwide private security forces to operate within the country. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) , which became effective this month and was signed by the US and Iraq in December, the country has [...]
Former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic requested Thursday that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) shorten his indictment in order to expedite his trial. The request came as a response to a motion by ICTY prosecutors last September, seeking to amend Karadzic's indictment and simplify the trial. That amendment [...]
