US Marine Corps Cpl. Trent D. Thomas was arraigned Thursday on charges of murder and kidnapping related to the April 2006 slaying of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania , but declined to enter a plea. Thomas was arraigned for the killing previously after he pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder, but last month he withdrew his [...]
A federal judge in California on Thursday dismissed all claims in the second of four patent infringement lawsuits filed by Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft Corp. . The case, which was scheduled to begin trial March 19, concerned speech recognition technology. The ruling, issued by US District Judge Rudi Brewster , will be appealed by Alcatel-Lucent. Last [...]
The US Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) Thursday agreed to extend by 18 months the compliance timeline for the REAL ID Act until December 31, 2009. In addition to the extension of the deadline imposed on states, DHS will allow states to use as much as 20 percent of the money allocated by the agency [...]
Belgium has become the first country to criminalize investment in companies that make cluster bombs . Legislation passed the Belgian Senate on Thursday, and the Parliament plans to publish a list of companies that manufacture cluster munitions. Belgian banks KBC and Fortis have already terminated their investments in such companies, and KBC has published its [...]
Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine has announced that he will sign a bill requiring sixth grade girls to receive a vaccination for the human papilloma virus (HPV) , a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer. The law, which passed both houses of the Virginia General Assembly on Wednesday, would take effect at the beginning of [...]
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday that Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has said as part of a court claim for British citizenship that he was shown a photo of a beaten fellow inmate and told that if he did not co-operate with interrogators he would be flown to Egypt for the same treatment. [...]
Meir Shamgar , the president of the Israeli Supreme Court between 1983 and 1995, has signed a public petition against Israeli Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann's recent proposal to restrict the ability of the Supreme Court to overturn laws passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knessett . The petition, to be officially published Friday, states that [...]
The US House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law voted Thursday to subpoena former Justice Department prosecutors Carol C. Lam (San Diego), David C. Iglesias (New Mexico), H.E. Cummins, III (Arkansas), and John McKay (Seattle), to testify at a subcommittee hearing next Tuesday. The subcommittee issued the subpoenas after the former US Attorneys privately [...]
Thirteen defendants have been charged "with participating in two massive insider trading schemes and in two separate bribery schemes" that netted more than $8 million dollars in illegal profits for themselves and the hedge funds with which the defendants were affiliated, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the New [...]
US v. David Matthew Hicks, Office of the Chief Prosecutor, March, 1, 2007 . Read the full text of the charge sheet . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
