The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted Tuesday to restrict Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) interrogators to techniques explicitly authorized by the military, approving a measure that would effectively prevent the CIA from using waterboarding during interrogations. The vote came during markup of a bill authorizing intelligence expenditures for the 2009 fiscal year. Sen. Dianne [...]
A New York appeals court has upheld a jury's finding that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was negligent in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by Islamic radicals that killed six and injured 1,000. The jury found in 2003 that the Port Authority , which owned the World Trade [...]
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey voted Wednesday in favor of restricting the controversial Article 301 of the country's penal code , which makes "insulting the Turkish identity" a crime. Lawmakers voted 250-65 in favor of amending Article 301 by reducing the minimum sentence for denigrating Turkish identity from three years to two, allowing for [...]
US law firm Milberg LLP , formerly Milberg Weiss, is in negotiations with federal prosecutors to settle accusations related to an alleged kickback scheme, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The firm pleaded not guilty in 2006 to fraud and conspiracy charges for allegedly paying up to $11.3 million since 1984 to individuals to serve as [...]
Zimbabwean police Tuesday released several hundred opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters detained after police raids last week. Twenty-nine women and children were released almost immediately last week, while the rest were released Tuesday pursuant to a court order . Witnesses say that police were searching for vote counting materials that might show that [...]
US District Judge James Robertson said Monday in a court hearing that he would set a dollar figure on the US government's alleged mismanagement of trust funds for a group of some 500,000 Native Americans in a 12-year class action lawsuit against the US Department of the Interior . Plaintiffs led by Eloise Cobell have [...]
Lawyers in China are subject to increasing persecution and intimidation by the Chinese government, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) . The report found that rights lawyers working on cases involving sensitive issues, including land evictions , face the greatest opposition from authorities. According to the report's summary: Over the [...]
The trial of former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and seven co-defendants began at the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad on Tuesday. Aziz, deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein's regime, and his co-defendants are charged in connection with the 1992 execution of 42 merchants accused by Hussein's government of causing a sharp increase in [...]
A Chinese court sentenced 30 people to prison Tuesday for their roles in protests against Chinese rule in Tibet last month. Three men received life sentences, including a Buddhist monk accused of destroying government property and leading attacks on police, while others were sentenced to terms ranging from three to 20 years. Chinese officials have [...]
Pojamarn Shinawatra, the wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , on Tuesday entered a written plea of not guilty to corruption and fraud charges before the Thai Supreme Court. Pojamarn challenged the legitimacy of the anti-graft Assets Examination Commission in her pleading and argued that she cannot be charged with corruption because she [...]
