The trial of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and former lawyer David Mills began Tuesday in Milan on charges of corruption arising from Berlusconi's alleged payment of $600,000 to Mills for favorable testimony at trials in the 1990s. Last month, the Italian Court of Cassation ruled that Berlusconi should face trial in an appeals [...]
The French Cour de Cassation held Tuesday that same-sex marriages are not valid under French law and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. The case arose in 2004 when Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married , after which both a local court and intermediate appeals court ruled that the [...]
Chinese Chief Justice Xiao Yang reported Tuesday that nine high ranking Chinese officials were convicted by courts in 2006 as a result of China's anti-corruption campaign . In a working report to the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) , the country's parliament, Xiao also reported that a total of 825 convicted government [...]
The Council of Europe's European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) called on Russia to deal with allegations of torture and abuse in the volatile Chechnya region in a record third public statement released Monday. The CPT previously issued public statements denouncing conditions in Russia in 2001 [...]
Media giant Viacom filed a lawsuit Tuesday for copyright infringement against the website YouTube and owner Google , seeking over $1 billion in damages and an injunction that would prohibit further infringement. Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and other media outlets, alleges in its complaint that over 160,000 unauthorized video clips have been [...]
Pakistan's Supreme Judicial Council held a hearing Tuesday on the alleged misconduct of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as Pakistanis protested in the streets and lawyers boycotted courts across the country. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf suspended Chaudhry Friday for alleged misconduct. Chaudhry has questioned whether he will receive a fair hearing by the Council, which [...]
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) endorsed a declaration against torture drafted by 17 evangelical scholars, a move some say signifies an end to US President George W. Bush's alliance with Christian evangelicals. The declaration, written by Evangelicals for Human Rights , noted the traditional relationship between Christianity and "the human rights ethic." The authors [...]
A United Nations human rights expert urged the Philippines Monday to amend or repeal its new anti-terrorism law . Martin Scheinin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism , specifically expressed concern that the law allows house arrests without strong evidence of guilt and make detentions reviewable by "members [...]
A British judge said Monday that he dropped prisoner abuse charges against the most senior British military officer charged with abusing detainees last week because his superiors approved some of the techniques. A British Army major testified in November 2006 that a military legal adviser approved techniques for preparing Iraqi detainees for interrogation that allegedly [...]
A US federal judge has approved a settlement under which Arthur Andersen will pay $72.5 million to investors who sued the firm for its involvement in the Enron scandal . US District Judge Melinda Harmon signed an order approving the settlement, ending the former accounting giant's involvement in a $40 billion class action lawsuit . [...]
