US Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine told the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Tuesday that the confusion and abuses surrounding the use of National Security Letters (NSL) was "unacceptable and inexcusable." The Federal Bureau of Investigation illegally gathered data from telephone and financial records of both US citizens and foreigners while [...]
The UK Department of Education and Skills issued school uniform guidelines Tuesday that allow schools to ban students from wearing Muslim veils if teachers believe the garments can affect safety or a student's learning. Minister for Schools Jim Knight noted that "uniforms can help to develop the right mindset among pupils" and that schools should [...]
Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr said in an interview published Monday that he will be unable to identify the alleged CIA kidnappers who he says abducted him from Italy in 2003 because they wore face masks. He said he would like to serve as a witness if and when the case goes to trial, [...]
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals withdrew class action status Tuesday from Enron shareholders who filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit in October 2001. US District Judge Melinda Harmon certified the class in June 2006, but defendants Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse Group appealed to the Fifth Circuit, alleging the certification should be thrown out [...]
The US Senate voted Tuesday to limit the power of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to name interim US attorneys, passing the Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007 by a vote of 94-2 . The vote came amid increasing pressure on Gonzales to resign after the recent firings of eight federal prosecutors, which have [...]
One of Pakistan's three deputy attorneys general resigned Tuesday, telling Reuters that the crisis over President Pervez Musharraf's March 9 suspension of Chief Justice Iktikhar Chaudhry for unspecified "misconduct" had made it "very difficult for me to perform my duties." The move by Nasir Saeed Sheikh follows the resignation of seven Pakistani judges earlier this [...]
A US military jury recommended Monday that 101st Airborne Staff Sgt. Raymond Girouard be sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted last week of three counts of negligent homicide for the deaths of three Iraqi detainees held after a May 2006 raid in Thar Thar. He was also found guilty of one count [...]
The interim government of Bangladesh said Tuesday it plans to set up a national human rights commission in the country to deal with human rights problems there. Human rights groups have recently complained about extra-judicial killings and arbitrary arrests by the security forces in Bangladesh. There have been 50 unexplained deaths in the country since [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that parties can contractually allocate the burden of attorneys' fees when litigation involves issues of federal bankruptcy law. In Travelers Casualty v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. , Travelers sought to recover attorneys' fees according to its indemnification agreements with PG&E, but the lower courts did not allow recovery [...]
A former CIA director is recommending in a report to a group of international civic leaders that the United States enact an EU-style cap-and-trade program and other measures to control greenhouse gas emissions . The background paper by John Deutch , who led the CIA in the mid-'90s and now teaches in the chemistry department [...]
