A Spanish National Court judge Friday blocked two Basque political parties from fielding candidates in Spain's March general elections, ruling that the parties were connected to ETA , the armed Basque separatist movement. Judge Baltasar Garzon found that Batasuna , ETA's banned political arm, had used the Basque Nationalist Action Party (ANV) and the Communist [...]
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday rejected a suggestion by the nation's highest Christian cleric that UK Muslims be given an option to resolve some civil disputes under Sharia law rather than UK law. Speaking to the BBC, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams appeared to agree that limited application of Sharia law might help to [...]
The Paris appeals court Friday ordered accused "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel held in custody while an investigation continues into $73 billion worth of unauthorized trades he allegedly made while working for French bank Societe Generale . The court granted a request by prosecutors to hold Kerviel in "provisional detention" to prevent him from fleeing the [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Friday ruled that the "cap-and-trade" policy, to be implemented in 2010 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate electrical power plant mercury emissions, is effectively invalid. The policy would permit power plants whose mercury emissions exceed the regulatory cap to buy "credits" from other power [...]
A French court Friday sentenced Jean-Marie Le Pen , leader of France's far-right National Front party , for making public comments minimizing the World War II Nazi occupation of France. The charges stem from a 2005 interview with the right-wing weekly magazine Rivarol , in which Le Pen said that the occupation was "not particularly [...]
Court-martial proceedings began Friday for US Army sniper Sgt. Evan Vela , charged in connection with the killings of unarmed Iraqi civilians near Iskandariyah. In opening statements, Vela's lawyer said that he was only following a superior's orders and that Vela was sleep-deprived and unable to think clearly on the morning of one of the [...]
The Nebraska Supreme Court Friday ruled that execution by electric chair is "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore prohibited by the Nebraska constitution . In State v. Mata, an appeal by convicted murderer Raymond Mata Jr. against his 2000 death sentence, the court found that since unconsciousness and death are not instantaneous, many condemned prisoners [...]
Two civil rights organizations filed a complaint Thursday against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in federal district court in San Francisco, alleging that DHS failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding department policies on questioning and searching travelers returning to the United States from overseas. The Asian Law Caucus [...]
Thai investigators formally asked state prosecutors Friday to bring new charges against former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojamarn Shinawatra for allegedly concealing assets. Pojamarn returned to Thailand from self-imposed exile last month to face corruption and fraud charges. She was arrested upon arriving in Thailand, and was released on bail after [...]
Two new judges, Sheikh Hakim Ali of the Lahore High Court and retired judge Mohammad Farrukh Mahmood, were sworn in to the reconstituted Supreme Court of Pakistan by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar Friday, bringing the regular membership of the court up to 16. They follow three other judges appointed to the high court in [...]
