US firearm ownership advocacy groups filed lawsuits in Chicago and San Francisco late this week seeking to overturn laws which ban handguns within the cities. The lawsuits were filed within a day of the US Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller , in which the Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment [...]
A proposal by the Italian government to fingerprint the country’s Roma minority drew fierce criticism from the human rights community and Roma advocates on Friday. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni announced plans on Thursday to fingerprint thousands of Roma children, saying that the process would help to reduce street begging and keep children in school. The [...]
The US Department of Justice announced Friday that it has settled a lawsuit brought by former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven Hatfill , a development that may moot a landmark contempt case against former USA Today reporter Toni Locy now awaiting a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Under [...]
A South African magistrate Thursday set April 14, 2009 as the start of the corruption and fraud trial of suspended police commissioner Jackie Selebi . The South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) charged Selebi, the former president of INTERPOL , with corruption in connection with his alleged relationship with Glenn Agliotti , a convicted drug [...]
An HIV-positive soldier has challenged his upcoming dismissal from the Indian Army, the Supreme Court announced Friday. A Human Rights Law Network lawyer who is representing the soldier argued that the policy barring HIV-positive personnel from military service was "retrograde," pointing to a March 2008 ruling by the South African High Court that struck down [...]
The Canadian Federal Court ruled in two separate opinions Thursday that media comments by Quebec Justice John Gomery , who led the inquiry into the sponsorship scandal involving the Liberal Party and the administration of former prime minister Jean Chrétien , indicated bias against Chrétien and his chief of staff Jean Pelletier . The court [...]
Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer promised in an open letter Thursday that he would push for Austria to hold national referenda in deciding whether to accept future modifications of the EU reform treaty , properly known as the Treaty of Lisbon . The announcement came two weeks after Irish voters rejected the reform treaty in a [...]
A German court Friday ruled that a sports utility vehicle manufactured in China bore an unacceptable resemblance to a model manufactured by German automaker BMW , ordering the SUV's importers to stop sales of the infringing SUV, destroy all remaining cars, and pay compensatory damages to BMW. China Automobile said it would appeal the ruling [...]
Unidentified assailants Thursday shot and killed a top Iraqi judge while he was traveling on a Baghdad highway. Kamel al-Shewaili was the president of the al-Rasafah Court of Appeal, one of two appeals courts in Baghdad, and presided over criminal cases for the city's eastern district. Reuters has more. Voices of Iraq has local coverage. [...]
Hearings to confirm war crimes charges against two former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leaders began at the International Criminal Court (ICC) Friday. Germain Katanga is accused of using child soldiers and orchestrating violence against women; former Nationalist and Integrationist Front leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is accused of planning and carrying out an attack [...]
