The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Tuesday voted to relax media ownership rules , overturning a 32-year-old rule barring media companies from owning both a newspaper and a television station in any one of the top 20 media markets in the nation. Passed in 1975, the original rule was intended to foster competition and ensure a [...]
A US military judge ruled Monday that Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan is due a hearing to settle his alleged status as a prisoner of war (POW) under the Geneva Conventions and that the determination by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) that he was an "enemy combatant" was no substitute for that. [...]
The Election Commission of Pakistan has refused to consider an appeal by former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif against an earlier ruling declaring him ineligible to run in January 8 parliamentary elections , Pakistani media reported Tuesday, quoting a commission spokesman. The basis for the appeal's rejection was not immediately made public, but the original [...]
A Guatemalan court has ruled that former dictator Efrain Rios Montt and other high ranking military officers cannot be extradited to Spain where they have been charged with genocide, torture, and other crimes against humanity. In last week's decision, which was not made public until Monday, the court said that Spain does not have jurisdiction [...]
US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. said Tuesday that he will hold a hearing to consider whether the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects violated a 2005 court order. Lawyers representing several Guantanamo Bay detainees filed an emergency motion earlier this month asking Kennedy to look into the tapes' destruction [...]
Pakistani police used batons and tear gas Monday against protesters attempting to march to the Islamabad residence of ousted Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry , still under virtual house arrest despite the December 15 lifting of President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule. Some 200 lawyers, students and activists chanting anti-Musharraf slogans and calling [...]
US federal prosecutions and convictions of law enforcement officers for alleged brutality have significantly increased in recent years, USA Today reported Tuesday, citing unspecified US Department of Justice statistics. The figures indicated that prosecutions for the use of excessive force or other violations of victims' civil rights had risen 25 percent from 224 to 281 [...]
A Lebanese court handed down sentences Tuesday for two defendants convicted of attempted mass murder for their role in a 2006 plot to blow up trains in Germany . Youssef al-Haj Deeb, currently in custody in Germany, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison and Jihad Hamad was sentenced to 12 years in prison. [...]
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Monday that a Senate vote on whether to extend immunity to telecommunications companies from lawsuits related to their participation in the NSA warrantless surveillance program would be delayed until after the Senate returns from the holiday recess. Reid said that there would not be enough time to [...]
Laval un Partneri Ltd. v. Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundet, Svenska Byggnadsarbetareförbundets avd. 1, Byggettan, and Svenska Elektrikerförbundet, European Court of Justice, December 18, 2007 . Read the full text of the judgment. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
