The US Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday debated a draft bill that would grant immunity from prosecution to telecommunications companies that assisted in government eavesdropping between 2001 and 2007. The bill, which would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act , also includes a provision requiring the attorney general to certify that probable cause exists to [...]
Turkey will hold a constitutional reform referendum on Sunday as scheduled, the Turkish Supreme Electoral Council said Wednesday. The referendum addresses a package of proposed reforms which include reducing the maximum parliamentary from five years to four; requiring a legislative voting quorum of one-third of Turkish MPs; reducing the presidential term from seven to five [...]
The military government of Myanmar Thursday said it will form a 54-member commission to draft a new national constitution as the next stage in its seven-step plan to move toward democratic rule. The commission reportedly will be comprised of both military and civilian officials and chaired by Chief Justice U Aung Toe. The government has [...]
Former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea on Thursday selected Dutch lawyer Michiel Pestman to serve as foreign counsel in his upcoming trial before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) , the ECCC said Thursday on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Chea is currently represented by Cambodian lawyer Son Arun [...]
Rwandan genocide suspect Dominique Ntawukuriryayo has been arrested in France, a UN spokesperson said Thursday. Ntawukuriryayo, a former public official, had been on the run from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) , where he has been charged with genocide, complicity in genocide and direct and public incitement to genocide. UN spokesperson Michelle Montas [...]
Howard M. Friedman : "In a world full of bad news, we can sometimes find optimism in strange places. Maryland federal district Judge John Bennett's careful ruling in a lawsuit against the unsavory members of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church is one of those places. The ruling gives me pride and continuing confidence in the legal [...]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan Wednesday dismissed concerns that President Pervez Musharraf would declare martial law if the court invalidates his disputed election victory, with the top presiding judge telling the court that such fears will not influence the court's decision making. The court is hearing arguments against Musharraf's re-election campaign by two of Musharraf's [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) said Thursday that former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) warlord Germain Katanga has been transferred to the court's detention center at The Hague. The ICC Office of the Prosecutor alleges that Katanga, the former senior commander of the Force de Resistance Patriotique en Ituri ("FRPI") militia in the DRC, [...]
House Democrats withdrew the RESTORE Act of 2007 ("Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed and Effective Act of 2007") from the House floor for consideration Wednesday after Republicans moved to attach an amendment to the bill which would have been politically awkward for Democrats to reject. The RESTORE Act is intended to replace the [...]
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin has circulated a schedule that calls for a final FCC vote in December on a proposal to relax media ownership rules . Under the current rules, a company may not own a television station and a newspaper in the same market, which is blocking Chicago investor Sam Zell from buying [...]
