A federal judge Thursday rejected a US Department of Justice (DOJ) motion to dismiss on state secrets grounds a class action lawsuit brought against AT&T alleging that the telecommunications giant violated citizens' rights to privacy as well as several federal statutes when it allowed the National Security Agency to use its infrastructure to wiretap US [...]
US authorities announced Thursday that compensation payments totaling $112,000 had been approved for victims of a May accident involving an American cargo truck in Kabul, Afghanistan , that set off an anti-American riot in which at least seven people died. According to conflicting reports, either US soldiers or Afghan police fired into a crowd to [...]
Cambodian genocide suspect Ek Choeun, also known as Ta Mok , died Thursday after having slipped into a coma in Phnom Penh earlier this week. He was 80. The former zone secretary and central committee member of the Khmer Rouge , who had been suffering from high blood pressure, tuberculosis, respiratory and other problems, was [...]
The US Senate voted Thursday to extend the Voting Rights Act (VRA) Thursday by 25 years rather than allowing portions of it to expire. The bill reauthorizing the VRA, which over the past four decades has helped to end election schemes that kept blacks from the polls, was approved by a vote of 98-0. Speaking [...]
Former US Rep. Bob Barr on Thursday filed a complaint on behalf of Georgia firearms dealer Adventure Outdoors in a Georgia state court alleging that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg violated state and federal laws while preparing to file a federal lawsuit against fifteen out-of-state gun dealers . The complaint alleges that Bloomberg committed [...]
A lawyer for Tariq Aziz , former deputy prime minister and foreign minister for ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, has filed a habeas corpus petition with the US Supreme Court , seeking his release from the custody of coalition forces in Iraq. Aziz lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano presented two questions to the Court Wednesday: (1) [...]
Responding to recent controversy over UK sentencing guidelines and following up on a major June policy address by Prime Minister Tony Blair, Home Secretary John Reid on Thursday released a criminal justice system review making several recommendations aimed at putting the rights of victims before the rights of criminals. To strengthen sentencing procedure, the Home [...]
Paul Hunt, the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, has called for an independent inquiry into war crimes in Gaza, saying that some Israeli attacks on Gaza are a violation of international humanitarian law . In a statement issued Wednesday, Hunt noted that the humanitarian [...]
Amnesty International (AI) took Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! to task for "Undermining Freedom of Expression in China" as part of a campaign, launched Thursday, to "combat internet oppression" worldwide. The report alleges that the Internet companies have been complicit in efforts by the Chinese government to silence government critics, in violation of stated corporate policies, [...]
Nicolo Pollari, chief of the Italian Intelligence and Security Services , told a closed door meeting of the Italian Senate defense committee that Italian intelligence was not involved in the alleged CIA extraordinary rendition of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr , also known as Abu Omar. Italian police arrested two intelligence officials with the [...]
