European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has suggested in a speech delivered in the UK that a different name be used to enact the institutional reforms set out in the failed European Constitution , echoing a similar notion advanced earlier this year by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU foreign ministers . Acknowledging the constitution's [...]
China is building a large barbed wire and concrete fence along parts of its border with North Korea , according to farmers and visitors in the area. A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman refused to comment or release information on border security. But experts and an official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press [...]
A federal judge in Houston on Tuesday vacated the conviction and dismissed the indictment of Enron founder Ken Lay . Lay was convicted in May on fraud and conspiracy charges for providing investors with false and misleading financial information from 1999 up until Enron filed bankruptcy in late 2001. He died suddenly of a heart [...]
Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Tuesday that Thailand will remain under martial law but will ease restrictions on political gatherings. Martial law currently prohibits gatherings of more than five people. The interim government, formally installed October 9 after receiving the approval of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, will allow meetings in venues such as universities [...]
A federal judge Monday rejected Missouri's lethal injection protocols as unconstitutional for the second time. Last month, US District Judge Fernando Gaitan ordered Missouri to submit new protocols by October 27 for carrying out the state death penalty . The decision is in response to a lawsuit filed by convicted murderer Michael Taylor , who [...]
The music industry filed lawsuits Tuesday against 8,000 defendants in 17 countries for allegedly participating in illegal file-sharing. The industry, represented by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) , reported that its latest wave of lawsuits targets people who upload copyrighted songs to file-sharing networks. Many of those being sued are parents of [...]
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has said that the organization will monitor polling places during the upcoming mid-term elections on November 7 in ten states chosen in part because of a history of problems in those locations. NAACP President Bruce Gordon stated Monday that the organization "will take steps to counter [...]
The chief judge presiding over Saddam Hussein's genocide trial agreed Tuesday to allow two lawyers representing one of Hussein's co-defendants to return to court. The lawyers had been participating in a boycott of the trial , but Sultan Hashim Al-Tai, Hussein's defense minister, requested that Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa give the lawyers leave to return [...]
President George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 Tuesday. The US Congress approved the bill late last month after leaders of the House of Representatives decided to forego the process of reconciling slightly-divergent House and Senate versions, with the House instead adopting the Senate version of the legislation. The military commissions bill [...]
A lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay detainee Murat Kurnaz , a Turkish citizen who is also a legal resident of Germany, said Tuesday that Germany is investigating allegations of abuse by German soldiers. Kurnaz, who spent almost five years at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay before being returned to Germany in August, has [...]
