UK Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald said Tuesday that there is no "war on terror" in Britain and warned that inappropriate measures driven by fear threaten an accused's right to a fair trial. In a speech delivered to the UK Criminal Bar Association, Macdonald, who also heads the Crown Prosecution Service , stressed that [...]
A federal judge in Chicago has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of NHL players against Ted Saskin, head of the National Hockey League Players' Association . Judge Suzanne B. Conlon of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled Monday that since the NHLPA and most of the witnesses are [...]
President Bush pressed for comprehensive immigration reform in his State of Union address Tuesday night, urging US lawmakers to take action to secure US borders, enhance interior and worksite enforcement of immigration laws, create a temporary worker program, resolve "without animosity or amnesty" the status of illegal immigrants already in the US, and promote assimilation. [...]
City of Farmers Branch, Ordinance 2903, January 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the revised ordinance . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
State Farm insurance company reached a settlement Tuesday with hundreds of Mississippi policyholders whose claims were denied after Hurricane Katrina , bringing an end to a trial that began January 9 in the US District for the Southern District of Mississippi . The agreement between State Farm and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood will award [...]
The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to deny retirement pensions to any member of Congress "convicted of any of certain offenses," including fraud, bribery and perjury. Currently, federal lawmakers can only be stripped of their benefits for treason or espionage. The new legislation, passed by a vote of 431-0 , adds [...]
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday that he was unaware of a US offer to release Guantanamo Bay detainee Murat Kurnaz , a German-born Turk, to Germany in 2002 notwithstanding a finding by a committee of the European parliament investigating CIA activity in Europe that Germany refused the offer, extending Kurnaz' detention for three [...]
The US District Court for the District of Columbia Tuesday postponed the scheduled sentencing of former US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Dr. Lester M. Crawford until February 27. Crawford previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of conflict of interest and false writing in October. Crawford's lawyer and representatives from the US Attorney's Office [...]
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has upheld a prior ruling to shut down the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society , a small NGO that reported on human rights violations and disappearances in the Northern Caucasus. The group was first shut down in October after a lower court applied a controversial law supported by President Vladimir [...]
The Iraqi High Tribunal heard more tapes on Tuesday in which the voice of defendant Ali Hassan al-Majid vowed to "leave no Kurd who speaks the Kurd language" and to "wipe them out." The genocide trial of al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein known to the Western media as "Chemical Ali," resumed last week. Following [...]
