A first group of more than 40 detainees held at the US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay were transferred Thursday to a new $37 million dollar maximum-security prison built by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root designed to minimize detainee contact and protect guards from attack. Military officials at the naval base say that isolating the [...]
The Indonesian Constitutional Court on Friday overturned as unconstitutional a 2004 law establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Indonesia to investigate, compensate, and resolve many human rights violations that occurred during the 1966-1998 authoritarian regime of former President Haji Mohammad Suharto . Three parts of the 46-article law were challenged by a coalition of [...]
The Nigerian Supreme Court has ruled that an attempt to remove regional governor Rasheed Ladoja from his position was unconstitutional. Ladoja, governor of Nigeria's Oyo state, was impeached in January 2006 after being accused of corruption and abusing his office. He challenged the impeachment in court, and the nation's high court on Thursday upheld a [...]
Italian lawmakers are planning to draft legislation that would give some legal recognition to same-sex unions , officials from the Italian Senate said Thursday. Senate leaders have requested that a bill be drafted by January 31 that would give legal status to unions of all unmarried couples, both heterosexual and homosexual, for tax purposes and [...]
California v. Hewlett-Packard, Superior Court of California, December 7, 2006 . Read the full text of the settlement . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The US Supreme Court Thursday granted certiorari in five cases , including two antitrust cases, and three criminal appeals. There are currently two other antitrust cases to be heard by the court this term. Credit Suisse v. Glen Billing (05-1157) , which Chief Justice Roberts, without comment, decided to take no part in, examines allegations [...]
Iraq Study Group Report, Iraq Study Group, December 7, 2006 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Canada’s House of Commons voted 175 to 123 Thursday against reopening debate on same-sex marriage . The result effectively upheld Canada’s 2005 law allowing equal marriage rights for same-sex couples , passed under the leadership of former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin. Canadian Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised repeatedly since coming to power [...]
Hewlett-Packard reached a $14.5 million settlement agreement with California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Thursday in an unfair business practices suit stemming from HP's allegedly fraudulent attempts to obtain certain phone records, a practice known as "pretexting." Lockyer "commend the firm for cooperating instead of stonewalling" and announced that $13.5 million of the settlement would [...]
Outgoing Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) presented a bill Thursday that would prevent federal prosecutors from exerting what he sees as excessive pressure on companies and executives in fraud investigations. Specter said he hoped the move would put pressure on the US Justice Department to refrain from using tactics he has described [...]
