President Bush granted pardons to 16 people on Thursday, including some convicted of drug crimes and others who were involved in fraud and kickback schemes. Bush additionally commuted the sentence of another man who had been convicted of drug offenses. Bush has issued a total of 113 pardons in his six years as president, the [...]
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was questioned by judges for more than 17 hours Thursday and early Friday in connection with an investigation of an alleged smear campaign conducted against Villepin's political rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy . It has been alleged that Villepin may have known that Sarkozy did not own secret bank [...]
A defense lawyer for imprisoned former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said Friday that he and former business associate Platon Lebedev have been transferred from their Siberian penal colony in Chita Oblast to a local remand prison . The transfer took place on Wednesday. Lawyers for the two men are expecting prosecutors to lay new charges [...]
Two co-defendants charged along with Saddam Hussein testified Thursday that chemical weapons were not used against Kurds during the so-called "Anfal" campaigns as the ousted Iraqi president's genocide trial continued in Baghdad. Former defense minister Sultan al-Tai and former army operations deputy director General Hussein Mohammed claimed that only conventional weaponry was used, and that [...]
Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC, US District Court for the District of Columbia, December 21, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Advocacy groups must be allowed to run issue ads in the two-month period immediately prior to elections, a three-judge panel from the US District Court for the District of Columbia held Thursday. The ruling was based on the US Supreme Court's January remand of Wisconsin Right to Life v. Federal Election Commission for the purpose [...]
Former Tyco executive Richard "Skip" Heger reached a $450,000 settlement on financial reporting and record-keeping charges, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday. The charges are connected to a fraud case in which Tyco agreed to pay a $50 million civil penalty and a $1 disgorgement fee for fraudulent accounting procedures used between 1996 [...]
US Marines Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich was charged Thursday with 13 counts of murder in connection with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November, according to Wuterich's lawyer. Officials at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton are expected to announce charges against several other military personnel later Thursday. Wuterich, commander of the [...]
The Zambian government will hold a national referendum on its proposed new constitution , Justice Minister George Kunda said Thursday. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has to date voiced objections to the draft constitution proposed by the Constitution Review Process Implementation Committee, but has now agreed to put the draft to a national vote by issuing [...]
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed into law Thursday legislation providing legal recognition to same-sex civil unions . The New Jersey Legislature passed the civil unions bill last week in response to an October New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples must be given equal rights. The court said the state legislature must decide [...]
