The United Nations Security Council on Friday discussed a report outlining UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's plans to reconfigure the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) now that the state's new constitution has entered into effect. Lamberto Zannier, whom Ban recently appointed as head of UNMIK and Special Representative to Kosovo, has already stated [...]
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit Thursday against international trading fund Optiver Holding BV and some of its subsidiaries and employees, alleging that the company manipulated the futures prices of oil and gasoline in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act . The suit, filed in the US District Court for the [...]
Three Department of Justice (DOJ) memos released Thursday indicate that certain enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding , are lawful and that those who employ them in good faith lack the specific intent required to be charged with torture. Under US law , torture involves "an act committed by a person acting under the color of [...]
Richard C. Dieter : "There is no question that treaties that have been signed and ratifed by the U.S. government are the "law of the land" and can be binding on states with the same force as federal law. The U.S. is bound by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and by the decision of [...]
The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that a 2005 state law aimed at prosecuting smugglers hired to ferry illegal immigrants across the border into the US can also be used to prosecute the illegal immigrants. The judge rejected arguments that the law infringed on the powers of the federal government to regulate immigration. The [...]
A judge for the London High Court on Thursday ordered a British man to pay approximately $44,000 in damages for creating a fake profile on social networking website Facebook and posting defaming information about an acquaintance, Mathew Firsht. The judge found that the postings were libelous regarding both Firsht and a business he operates, and [...]
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) said during a Committee hearing Friday that providing inducements to those who hold liens was the only practical legislative solution to the country's so-called "sub-prime mortgage collapse," and that House legislation passed Wednesday will effectively provide those inducements. The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 provides for government [...]
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Friday that the right of EU citizens to live in any EU member state also extends to non-citizen spouses and relatives. Four Irish couples brought the case, appealing deportation orders issued by the Irish Ministry of Justice, Equality and Law Reform because one member of each couple [...]
Bryan McCann : "Two years ago, a fellow anti-death penalty activist and I participated in a public debate on the University of Texas campus with the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT). No one was surprised when the YCT's first plan of attack was to read – verbatim – a detailed account of the particularly gruesome [...]
A Maryland judge Thursday rejected a challenge seeking to remove a referendum on a transgender anti-discrimination law from the November ballot. Circuit Court Judge Robert A. Greenberg ruled that the Montgomery County Board of Elections had miscalculated the number of signatures that proponents needed to gather before the referendum could be certified. However, Greenberg also [...]
