The US Supreme Court ruled in a per curiam opinion Tuesday in Hedgpeth v. Pulido that a harmless error standard should be applied when evaluating a conviction based on a general verdict where the jury was given alternate theories, including an invalid one. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had ruled that [...]
The head of Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) , Vladimir Milovidov , said Monday that next year Russia will create new laws that regulate insider trading and establish a compensation fund for victims of investment fraud. The compensation fund is to be modeled after a program of the Russian Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) , [...]
The Constitutional Court of Thailand on Tuesday ordered the dissolution of the ruling People's Power Party (PPP) , and banned prime minister Somchai Wongsawat from politics for five years as the result of an election fraud investigation. Former PPP deputy leader Yongyuth Tiyapairat was convicted of organizing a vote-buying scheme by the court in July, [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday held in Associated Press v. United States Department of Justice that the petition for commuted sentence of charged Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh falls under invasion-of-privacy exceptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and may properly be closed to the public. In January [...]
Canada took a step towards constitutional crisis Monday as the three federal opposition parties signed a landmark accord to defeat the Conservative minority government and form a new coalition government without an intervening election. If the Conservative government is defeated in a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons that could come as early as [...]
The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal on Tuesday sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid , better known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali," to death for his involvement in the repression of Shiites in southern Iraq during the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Al-Majid was charged last year with crimes against humanity for his alleged [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in two cases. In Kansas v. Colorado , the Court heard arguments on whether the Supreme Court must abide by Congressional rules regarding expert witness costs when the case falls under the Supreme Court's original and exclusive jurisdiction. The Court has constitutionally mandated original jurisdiction over the [...]
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution Monday condemning human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the close of a special session on renewed violence in the country. The Council singled out abuses in the eastern province of North Kivu, including sexual violence and the recruitment of child soldiers. It adopted [...]
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg said Monday that human rights standards have been undermined by the "war on terror." Hammarberg focused on blacklists created by UN Security Council Resolution 1267 (1999) , the EU common position 2001/931 , EU Regulation 2580/2001 , and revisions made to EU Regulation 2580 . Under [...]
The Spanish Foreign Ministry expressly allowed the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to use Spanish resources in transporting terror suspects to Guantanamo Bay, according to a 2002 internal Foreign Ministry memorandum released by Madrid's El Pais newspaper on Sunday. According to the document, an official for the ministry granted a CIA request to allow the [...]
