UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday that the United Kingdom does not need to hold a referendum to approve a new treaty to replace the failed European Constitution . Earlier this week, Blair joined Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in advocating amendments to current EU treaties rather than reviving the constitution , as [...]
Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive reached a settlement on Thursday with anti-game activist lawyer Jack Thompson. Take-Two agreed to drop a contempt of court charge against Thompson stemming from a prior legal battle over the video game Bully. Thompson had strong words for the judge following his unsuccessful attempt last October to get the "Teen"-rated [...]
Two US lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday to prohibit the government from interfering with a woman's right to have an abortion following the Wednesday's US Supreme Court decision upholding a federal ban on "partial-birth" abortions . Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) announced the reintroduction of the Freedom of Choice Act , which [...]
Iraq's growing use of the death penalty since its reinstatement in 2004 has given the country the fourth-highest execution rate in the world – surpassed only by China, Iran, and Pakistan – according to a report released Friday by Amnesty International . According to the report, more than 270 people have been sentenced to death [...]
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) filed a federal lawsuit against the US Department of Justice Thursday, seeking the disclosure and release of DOJ records in accordance with the DNC's March 19, 2007 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request involving the controversial firing of eight US attorneys . The complaint alleges that the DOJ has failed [...]
Former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio was convicted Thursday by a federal jury on 19 of 42 counts of insider trading. Nacchio illegally sold 1.33 million shares valued at $52 million dollars in conjunction with the Denver-based telephone service provider's accounting scandal between April 26 and May 29, 2001. Nacchio faces a maximum sentence for [...]
The US House of Representatives passed the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act (HR 1905) Thursday, which could increase official House membership for the first time since 1960. The bill, which passed 241-177 , would make the District of Columbia a congressional district with full voting rights in the House, and as a compromise [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that a Korean executive at Samsung Electronics has pleaded guilty to a large conspiracy that fixed the price of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), affecting the cost of personal computers worldwide. Il Ung Kim, former VP of Marketing for Samsung's Memory Division, will pay a $250,000 fine [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday sought the dismissal of all pending Guantanamo Bay detainee habeas corpus cases in the US District Court for the District of Columbia . The motion to dismiss was filed in response to the US Supreme Court denying petitions for certiorari earlier this month on two cases challenging [...]
David Nicholl : "The legal black-hole of Guantanamo is well recognised, however it is less well realised how the ongoing breaches of medical ethics in Guantanamo are damaging the normally high standards of US medicine. In June 2006, I and over 250 physicians criticised the use of forcefeeding and restraints on Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers [...]
