A former British intelligence bureau chief told the House of Lords Tuesday that a proposed anti-terror bill allowing authorities to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days is impractical and unprincipled. Elizabeth Manningham-Buller , who resigned as the head of MI5 last year, said that the bill was unworkable and would not [...]
The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) expressed "great concern" Tuesday over Italy's decision to dissolve the office of High Commissioner against corruption , effective August 25, 2008. In a letter to High Commissioner Vincenzo Grimaldi, the president of GRECO, a coalition of European states dedicated to monitoring compliance with the Council of Europe's anti-corruption [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says the Iraqi government needs to secure independent counsel over and above whatever guidance it has received from US government advisers before entering into key oil contracts with major US oil companies… Much has been written recently of the oil contracts [...]
Anna Baggio : "The fact that Ontario's antiquated mining legislation was cited as part of problem at the heart of Ardoch Algonquins case is significant. It reinforces, for me, the need for a massive overhaul of Ontario's Mining Act including the "free entry system." It also reinforces for me the need to bring mining legislation [...]
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg Tuesday signed an agreement allowing the US to install ballistic missile radar systems in the Czech Republic, prompting an immediate Russian threat of a "military-technical" response if the deal is implemented. The two signatories worked out most of the details of [...]
The upper house of the Dutch parliament voted 50-15 Tuesday to approve the EU reform treaty , formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon . Last month, Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that he would press on with ratification, even after Irish voters rejected the treaty in a referendum earlier that month. The [...]
Gregg Cunningham : "Why does it matter that hecklers be denied a veto over offensive speech? Social injustice will always flourish where it is ignored and trivialized. Oppressors are most ruthless when their abuses can be concealed. It is, therefore, the responsibility of social reformers to drag these travesties out of the darkness and into [...]
An en-banc panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Wednesday released a ruling granting broad deference to the National Forest Service (NFS) when making decisions regarding the impact of logging on national forests. The ruling comes in a case brought by environmental groups Lands Council and the Wild West Institute to [...]
The US Department of Health and Human Services Monday hosted a discussion with genetic scientists, advocates and direct-to-consumer (DTC) genome mapping companies Navigenics, DeCode Genetics, and 23andMe to discuss regulatory concerns. DTC genetic testing allows members of the public to obtain genetic data about themselves, usually to look for potential health risks, but does not [...]
Genocide suspects held at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will now be able to receive conjugal visits, court officials said Saturday. Court spokesman Roland Amoussouga said that the new policy would bring the court's practices more in line with those of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , which has [...]
