The US Supreme Court issued an order Monday that vacated a 2005 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit striking down Missouri's 1999 "partial birth" abortion ban. After the Supreme Court's decision last week in Gonzales v. Carhart , the Eighth Circuit ruling was out of step with the Court's upholding [...]
The United Kingdom cannot legally continue to provide political asylum to Russian billionaire and alleged coup plotter Boris Berezovsky and refuse to extradite him, the chairman of the Russian State Duma's Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Law Committee said Monday. Berezovsky, who has been charged with plotting a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin , [...]
Bernard Ntuyahaga , a former Rwandan army major, denied at trial Monday any involvement in the 1994 murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and the Rwandan prime minister they were charged with protecting. Ntuyahaga said he was being used as a scapegoat, that he was simply "at the bad place at the bad moment." The prosecution [...]
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may file a lawsuit against former Apple, Inc. General Counsel Nancy Heinin for allegations of backdating two 2001 stock option grants, Heinin's lawyers said Monday. The incidents in question involved one grant to CEO Steve Jobs and another to several executives including Heinin herself. In particular, Heinin allegedly [...]
The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Monday in US v. Santos 06-1005 , where the Court will consider the definition of proceeds in relation to illegal money laundering schemes under 18 USC 1956 . The case is on appeal from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The Seventh Circuit ruled in favor [...]
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom pledged Sunday to keep the city a haven for immigrants, saying that while he cannot stop US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from making arrests, he will try to keep them from conducting immigrations raids. In a statement at a local church, Newsom said "I will not allow…anyone associated [...]
The head of Nigeria's electoral commission announced Monday that ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Umaru Yar'Adua won the country's weekend presidential election by a landslide – taking 24.6 million votes as against 6.6 million for former army general Muhammadu Buhari – but European Union observer Max van den Berg , echoing sharp criticism of [...]
A spokesperson for New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has said the governor plans to introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state of New York in the next few weeks. Spitzer reportedly seeks to fulfill a campaign promise to support a gay marriage bill he made last October in his run for governor. [...]
US Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and US Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) said Sunday they will push legislation in the US Congress that would mandate that states improve their system for reporting mental health records of gun purchasers to the federal databases for background checks in the wake of last Monday's shootings at the Virginia Polytechnic [...]
President Bush defended US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday after US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) , the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, publicly criticized Gonzales Sunday for his role in the controversial firing of eight US attorneys and said Gonzales' testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week was "very, very damaging to his [...]
