A US federal judge Friday refused to dismiss terrorism support charges against Jose Padilla , finding that Padilla's 3 1/2 years in custody as an "enemy combatant" did not violate his constitutional rights. US District Judge Marcia Cooke said that the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial was not invoked until Padilla was charged [...]
The Russian Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Republican Party one of Russia's oldest opposition parties, was too small to be considered a political party under a 2004 Russian law and should be closed down. Republican Party co-Chairman Vladimir Ryzhkov argued that the party was actually larger than the court believed, that it had 58,000 [...]
As part of a plea deal, former Deputy US Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of justice charges Friday for lying to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 about his relationship with former lobbyist Jack Abramoff . In his committee testimony , Griles, a former lobbyist himself, failed [...]
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf appointed the senior-most judge on the Pakistani Supreme Court as acting chief justice Friday, as thousands of lawyers across the country protested the suspension of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and campaigned for his reinstatement. Justice Rana Bhagwandas , the only Hindu judge on the court, will take on the [...]
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) announced Friday that it has amended its case against former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld to include as plaintiffs two former Guantanamo Bay detainees who claim that even after the military's Combatant Status Review Tribunal found them not to be enemy combatants, they were still held and subject to [...]
Authorities in Bangladesh plan in April to execute 6 Islamic militants convicted in the 2005 murders of two judges , according to reports Friday in the Independent and Jugantor newspapers. According to anonymous prison sources, Deputy Inspector General of Prisons Maj. Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said prison security has been increased in anticipation of attacks by [...]
The chief prosecutor of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) issued an arrest warrant Friday for Jean-Pierre Bemba , a former warlord turned senator, whose private militia clashed with government security forces on Thursday. Bemba was elected to the Senate after losing a run-off presidential election to Joseph Kabila , who in December became [...]
US District Judge L.T. Senter, Jr. refused to certify a class in a suit against State Farm Insurance brought by policyholders whose claims were rejected following Hurricane Katrina . The "slab case" plaintiffs, whose homes were reduced to slabs by the hurricane, had sought to bring a class action against State Farm due to the [...]
A German judge who cited the Koran as part of her rationale for denying a Muslim woman a fast-track divorce has provoked criticism from German lawmakers and Muslim clerics. The woman, a German citizen of Moroccan descent, had a restraining order against her Moroccan husband and sought a divorce on grounds of physical abuse. In [...]
New US Defense Secretary Robert Gates argued during his first few weeks in the position that the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay should be shut down and detainees transferred to the US, according to a report in Friday's New York Times. Gates told other senior administration officials that Guantanamo was hindering US war efforts [...]
