State Farm Insurance will accelerate settlement payouts to Mississippi Gulf Coast residents whose homes were affected by Hurricane Katrina , according to Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale Monday. Dale told Reuters that after the court delayed certifying a proposed settlement, he negotiated with State Farm "to bring closure for coastal homeowners." State Farm had originally [...]
Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan will be hanged Tuesday, according to Iraqi legal sources quoted by wire services Monday afternoon. The Iraqi government has scheduled the execution despite defense lawyers' contention that the government must wait at least 30 days after sentencing to execute a defendant. Ramadan, found guilty with Saddam Hussein of [...]
The US Department of Defense reported Monday that Guantanamo detainee Walid Muhammad Salih bin Attash admitted to collaborating on the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Kenya and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole at a Guantanamo Bay military hearing last week. According to the hearing transcript , bin Attash said he "participated [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Morse v. Frederick , 06-278 , where the court must decide whether a student's First Amendment rights had been violated when a principal suspended him after he displayed a banner with the message "Bong hits 4 Jesus" during a televised parade on a school day. The [...]
The US District Court for the District of Colorado began jury selection Monday in the trial of former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio . Nacchio was indicted on 42 counts of insider trading in December 2005 for allegedly selling off more than $100 million in Qwest stock in conjunction with the Denver-based telephone service provider's [...]
Victor Kelley : "I am a retired Marine and my profession since "retirement" is the defense of service members accused of crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If someone has a better job than I, I haven't met him. I have the privilege of traveling the world, defending those who defend America. Last [...]
British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh , who was sentenced to death in July 2002 for kidnapping and murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl , will use a Guantanamo Bay detainee's confession to support his appeal, his lawyer said Monday. Omar's lawyer said he plans to substantiate his client's appeal by introducing the [...]
US President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair may one day face war crimes charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, according to ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo . Moreno-Ocampo said Sunday that the ICC could investigate allegations of war crimes stemming from the conduct of coalition forces in Iraq [...]
A coalition of NGOs appealed to the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) Monday, urging it to reconsider its requirement that participating international lawyers in the Khmer Rouge genocide trials join and pay a membership fee. The question of fees was left unresolved after judges appointed to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts [...]
The constitutional crisis in Pakistan over President Pervez Musharraf's suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry deepened Monday with the resignation of seven of the country's judges, including a top judge in Pakistan's populous Punjab province. Meanwhile protests sparked by the suspension continued across Pakistan for a ninth day as the Pakistan Supreme Court held [...]
