US Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday urged the US Congress to renew and expand the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) when it meets for a scheduled Thursday vote. In a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, Cheney called on Congress to amend FISA to grant immunity to telecommunications companies from lawsuits related to [...]
A Dutch appeals court Wednesday overturned the convictions of seven men who were charged with being in a terrorist network that included Muslim extremist Mohammed Bouyeri . Bouyeri confessed to the November 2004 murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh . The seven men were suspected of belonging to the Dutch Muslim Hofstad Network terror [...]
The Dutch government plans to ban burqas in schools and government offices, rejecting a proposal by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders to prohibit wearing burqas in public altogether, according to Wednesday media reports. Wilders submitted a legislative proposal in July 2007 which would punish those wearing burqas in public with a fine of up to €3,350 [...]
The US Senate Tuesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 , a military spending bill that includes a provision exemptimg Iraq from US lawsuits dating back to the regime of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein . Sponsored by Congressman Ike Skelton (D-MO) , the bill passed the Senate 91-3 . The [...]
The office of Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Wednesday that Vukcevic has received death threats for his involvement in pursuing war crimes fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for their roles in the 1990 Balkan Wars. Four war crimes suspects are still at large, including former Bosnian [...]
Pojamarn Shinawatra, wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , told the Thailand Supreme Court Tuesday that Thaksin will return to Thailand in May to battle corruption charges laid against him after he was ousted in a military coup in September 2006. Pojamarn herself faces charges of conflict of interest and malfeasance for a [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Robert Amsterdam, international defense counsel for Russian billionaire and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, imprisoned in Siberia for tax fraud after a controversial trial and now facing money laundering charges, says it is increasingly clear that the case against his client is political in nature… In the Kremlin's zeal to keep [...]
Israel and the United States plan to boycott a special session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva Wednesday called to discuss possible human rights violations in Gaza in the wake of a blockade imposed by Israel on the area last Friday. Israel closed crossings into Gaza after more than 45 rockets attacks [...]
The City Council of Farmers Branch , a Dallas, Texas suburb, on Tuesday approved a measure that would require all adults to apply for a city license before they can lease a house or apartment. The application obliges rental applicants to disclose whether they are a US citizen or a legal alien in the US, [...]
Jane Roe v. Lance Crawford, Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, January 22, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
