The US District Court for the District of Columbia Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for authorizing torture and abuse of detainees by US personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. The suit asserted that Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility for detainee abuse and that his actions violated the US Constitution, federal [...]
Kosovan Prime Minister Agim Ceku Tuesday urged Serbs to accept a UN plan to have Kosovo govern itself as an autonomous, multi-ethnic society. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica responded that Kosovo "could never be independent" and calling the plan "an act of legal violence." The plan was narrowly rejected by the Serbian Parliament last month [...]
Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Italy launched simultaneous raids on Tuesday in a massive anti-corruption investigation involving European public servants. Over 150 police officers took part in over 30 raids of homes, businesses and banking offices, as well as the European Commission and the European Parliament in Brussels. The investigation is focused on whether European civil [...]
The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in two cases Tuesday, including Rockwell International v. US ex rel. Stone where the Court held that individuals must be able to show that they are the "original source" of information concerning the fraudulent use of federal funds in order bring suit against an organization on behalf of [...]
A French appeals court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of French state railway company SNCF for the deportation of two Jewish men during World War II. An administrative court in Toulouse convicted SNCF last June. The lawsuit was brought by the family of European Parliament MEP Alain Lipietz , whose father and uncle were taken [...]
FBI Director Robert Mueller asserted Tuesday that the agency is able to properly use the surveillance powers granted it under the Patriot Act , telling senators at a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that a compliance program has been implemented to police the use of National Security Letters (NSL) . Mueller insisted that the Patriot [...]
An Illinois jury sided with Merck & Co. Tuesday in the latest Vioxx litigation, holding that the painkiller was not the cause of the 2003 death of 52-year-old Patty Schwaller. Schwaller's husband claimed that Vioxx contributed to his wife's fatal heart attack and that Merck failed to adequately warn doctors and consumers about the increased [...]
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announced plans Tuesday to present new legislation to the Iraqi National Assembly in upcoming weeks that would allow most members of Saddam Hussein's now-defunct Baath Party to be reinstated to public life. Under the new law, the government would be authorized to replace the DeBaathification [...]
Rights violations being committed in Central Asia are comparable to abuses perpetrated in the former Soviet Union, according the annual report released Tuesday by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF). The IHF was particularly critical of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan . According to the report, problems in those countries include government interference in the [...]
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) has proposed amending a bill requiring girls to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) , a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, to allow parents to opt out of the mandate more easily. Kaine announced his recommendation Monday rather than sign the bill, as he had pledged to [...]
