Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks gathered intelligence on the US embassy in Kabul and "participated in an advanced al Qaeda course on information collection and surveillance" before being captured in 2001 while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to new details released Friday by US officials. The DOD memorandum notifying Hicks of the [...]
The Italian Court of Cassation ruled Friday that former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi should face trial in an appeals court on corruption charges . Berlusconi was accused of bribing judges to stop the auction of the SME state-owned food company to a rival in 1985, but was acquitted in December 2004. A law passed [...]
A Russian court on Friday upheld the 2004 sale of the top production unit of now-bankrupt oil company Yukos . Yuganskneftegaz was auctioned off after Yukos was held liable for over $20 billion in back taxes . Yukos sued in 2005 to challenge the sale of Yuganskneftegaz, which is now controlled by the Russian state [...]
US District Judge Robert G. Doumar has said that he will not grant the Sudanese government's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by families of sailors killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole . Although he has not issued a formal ruling on the issue, Doumar said during a hearing Thursday to determine [...]
A group of lawmakers from the US Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday introduced the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act , which would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the same authority to regulate tobacco products as it has over other consumer products. The bill, which cites the dangers of tobacco [...]
US District Judge Charles S. Haight ruled Thursday that the New York Police Department (NYPD) must stop its practice of videotaping lawful public gatherings and preserving the videotapes and adhere to the so-called "Modified Handschu Guidelines" developed by prior court rulings, which govern police surveillance. Haight is responsible for overseeing the terms of a settlement [...]
Italian Judge Caterina Interlandi issued indictments Friday for 31 US and Italian intelligence agents for their alleged role in the February 17, 2003 abduction and extraordinary rendition of alleged terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr in Milan. Prosecutor Armando Spataro has alleged that 25 Americans working for the Central Intelligence Agency, one United States Air [...]
Executive Order on Trial of Alien Unlawful Enemy Combatants by Military Commission, President George W. Bush, February 14, 2007 . Read the full text of the order. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly failing to report gifts and payments given by a defense technology company that received secret military contracts while Gibbons was still a US congressman, an anonymous FBI source confirmed to the AP Thursday. The investigation is focusing on allegations that Gibbons' longtime friend, [...]
Chief of the Russian Military General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky told Russian media Thursday that Russia might unilaterally opt out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) if the US continues efforts to establish missile defense systems in Central Europe. Baluyevsky has previously criticized the establishment of the missile defense bases in Central Europe. Just [...]
