UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Wednesday urged the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to avoid the "political maneuvering" that plagued the rights body's predecessor, the UN Human Rights Commission , telling the 47 member states that their role was to combat human rights violations even if regional allies were opposed to those efforts. In a statement [...]
The South African National Council of Provinces has approved the Civil Unions Bill , legislation that would make South Africa the first African nation to recognize same-sex unions if President Thabo Mbeki approves the measure. The lower house of the nation's parliament approved the bill earlier this month in a 230-41 vote. While religious leaders [...]
Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a land redistribution bill Tuesday that he hopes will allow his government to give 77,000 square miles of unproductive land to the country's poor. The president signed the bill amidst shouts of approval from more than 3,000 Indian supporters who may gain land from the new measure, which is part [...]
A Serbian war crimes suspect will continue boycotting his war crimes trial, despite the urgings of his court-appointed lawyers, who have not had contact with him since Monday. Lawyers for Serbian war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that their client has refused to speak with them [...]
The trial of six German defendants accused of breaching their fiduciary duties during the takeover of telecom giant Mannesmann came to an end Wednesday, with the defendants agreeing to pay substantial financial settlements in exchange for no criminal charges on their records. The defendants, including Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann , former Mannesmann executives, [...]
Lawyers for German national Khalid el-Masri argued Wednesday before the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that his civil case against the CIA for his alleged 2003 extraordinary rendition from Macedonia and his subsequent detention in Afghanistan should be reinstated . A federal judge in May dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that it would [...]
A judge in the Saddam Hussein trial ejected a defense lawyer from the courtroom Wednesday and ordered a day-long detention after the lawyer repeatedly addressed a prosecutor as "brother." Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa had previously warned Badih Aref, lawyer for former intelligence director Farhan al-Jubouri , to respect courtroom formalities, and found Aref guilty of [...]
Flood damage caused by Hurricane Katrina may be covered under those insurance policies that do not specifically exclude from coverage damage caused by negligence, according to a federal court opinion handed down Monday. Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the US Eastern District of New Orleans rejected a bid by insurers to dismiss plantiffs' actions [...]
An Italian judge held a hearing Wednesday to determine whether Mario Lozano, a US Army Specialist, should stand trial in connection with the death of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari at an Iraqi checkpoint in March 2005. Italian prosecutors requested an indictment in June after investigators concluded their probe into Calipari's death, finding Lozano responsible [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Douglas Branson of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that the latest US corporate scandal involves disclosures of backdated stock options upping the already-disproportionate compensation of CEOs and other senior managers, with criminal charges being laid against five corporate executives so far… A November 17, 2006 Wall Street Journal headline [...]
