The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Monday in two cases . US v. Williams (06-694) , on appeal from the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit , considers whether part of the federal anti-child abuse PROTECT Act of 2003 is unconstitutional for criminalizing speech protected by the First Amendment. The Eleventh Circuit held [...]
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his sympathy and apologized Monday for the "situation" faced by so-called Korean and Chinese "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery during World War II. Abe stopped short of explicitly acknowledging the alleged roles of the wartime military and government in Japan in facilitating the practice. Until this [...]
Prosecutors in Thailand filed criminal tax evasion charges Monday against the wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , Pojaman Shinawatra, as well as her secretary and her brother, Bhanapot Damapong. Shinawatra and her brother were arraigned by the Bangkok Criminal Court on two counts of evading taxes based on an alleged failure to [...]
The Miyazaki District Court in Japan dismissed a lawsuit Monday by a group of Chinese men who claim they were forced to work as slave laborers during World War II because the 20-year deadline for filing compensation claims under Japanese law had expired, according to a court spokesperson. The lawsuit sought $1.56 million in damages [...]
The Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) Monday denounced a threatened boycott by four international judges appointed to the tribunal set to prosecute former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide as a "childish game" and an excuse to delay the anticipated tribunal. The judges from the Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts of Cambodia said [...]
Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks will be arraigned Monday as the first prisoner charged under the new Military Commissions Act passed by the US Congress last year. Lawyers for Hicks, who has been held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for over five years, say their client plans to make a statement to the [...]
Top GOP senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) expressed concern Sunday about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' credibility in the wake of Friday document disclosures indicating his direct involvement in discussions surrounding the firing of eight US Attorneys, contrary to previous testimony to Congress. Democrat Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) meanwhile called for [...]
A Libyan court Sunday postponed for the second time the criminal defamation trial of six foreign medics accused of slandering three Libyan police agents and a Libyan doctor. Five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death in December for deliberately infecting 426 children with the HIV virus. The medics have maintained that [...]
European Union leaders marked the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome Sunday by signing a declaration aimed at revitalizing efforts to pass an European constitution . The non-binding Berlin Declaration states that the 27 leaders of the EU are "united in aim of placing the European Union on a renewed common basis before the [...]
Pakistani police have arrested hundreds of opposition activists suspected of planning future demonstrations against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's controversial suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry , according to Pakistan opposition leaders Sunday. The Pakistani government, however, has denied any knowledge of anticipatory arrests ahead of new protests planned to take place across Pakistan Monday. [...]
