Voters in Farmers Branch, Texas approved a city ordinance Saturday which requires apartment renters to show proof of US residency and penalizes landlords who rent to illegal immigrants . Landlords who do not comply with the law will face fines up to $500. The ordinance does not require minors and tenants who are 62 years [...]
Over 250,000 people gathered in Rome Saturday to protest a bill currently before parliament which would give legal status to unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples . The bill was approved by Italy's cabinet in February, but has been harshly criticized by the Italian justice minister and the top Italian bishop . The proposal would give [...]
Outgoing UK Home Secretary John Reid told a meeting of ministers from major EU states Saturday that European human rights laws needed to be "modernized" to provide better protection from new terrorism threats. Addressing a conference of EU home affairs and interior ministers in Venice, Reid said more attention had to be paid to the [...]
German Chancellor Angel Merkel Saturday urged European Union members to work together to advance a European constitution , largely stalled since referendum setbacks in France and the Netherlands in 2005. Merkel, whose country currently holds the EU presidency , was speaking at a mini-summit with key European leaders held in Portugal in the lead-up to [...]
At least eleven people have reportedly died and several dozen others have sustained injuries in Pakistan in conjunction with a Saturday rally in Karachi in support of suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry . Activists had gathered to protest the decision of President Pervez Musharraf to suspend Chaudhry amid ongoing violence in the country. AP [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Friday withdrew one of its proposals for tightened restrictions on contact between lawyers and their clients at Guantanamo Bay outlined in an earlier DOJ filing with the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Backtracking on a three-visit cap between detainees and their lawyers, DOJ lawyers said they continue to [...]
Poland's Constitutional Tribunal Friday struck down portions of the country's so-called Lustration Law passed in October 2006 requiring over 700,000 Polish professionals – academics , journalists, lawyers, diplomats and managers of state-owned companies – to file affidavits swearing they they never co-operated with the country's Communist-era secret police. The high court ruled that the government [...]
A Moroccan man convicted of aiding the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers lost an appeal to Germany's top criminal court Friday. Mounir el Motassadeq was convicted in November of being an accessory to murder for helping to protect the hijackers and maintain their facade of being regular university students; in January he was sentenced to 15 [...]
Cuba Friday accused the US of violating international anti-terrorism treaties by freeing anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles on bail and afterwards dismissing an indictment against him. In a statement published in state newspaper Granma, the Cuban government said Posada Carriles' release went against UN Security Council Resolution No. 1373 (2001), the International Convention for the [...]
The Thai government announced Friday that it has decided not to sue internet search giant Google after the company agreed to remove a YouTube video considered insulting to Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej . In April Thailand banned access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube , now owned by Google, for hosting a video depicting the [...]
