The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider the boundaries of the 1995 Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) in a set of cases that will further specify when and how prisoners can bring lawsuits that contest the conditions of prisons. The high court granted to certiorari in Jones v. Bock , 05-7058, and Williams [...]
The UK House of Lords dealt another major legislative setback to the anti-terrorism policies of the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair Monday by voting down for a second time a bill designed to establish a UK national ID card system. The Identity Cards Bill , a previous version of which failed in the Lords [...]
The Hamas-controlled Palestinian Legislative Council on Monday voted to strip Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of powers given him last month by the lame-duck parliament dominated by Abbas' Fatah party . Among those was the authority to appoint a constitutional court empowered to cancel any law approved by the newly-elected Hamas-led assembly considered contrary to [...]
United Arab Emirates state-owned company Dubai Ports World Monday received the go-ahead to take over British shipping company P&O , after the UK's Court of Appeal declined to hear an appeal from Miami-based Eller & Co. . The three judge panel's unanimous refusal to hear an appeal affirms a lower court's holding that the $6.8 [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday signed into law new anti-terrorism legislation giving the Russian police and military broad authority to tap telephone conversations and control electronic communications in the vicinity of counter-terror operations, shoot down hijacked planes threatening public places or strategic facilities, and deal with the aftermath of terrorist attacks. The legislation passed the [...]
AP is reporting that South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds has signed legislation that will ban most abortions in the state, excluding only those necessary to save a woman's life. Under the bill , approved by the state legislature last month, doctors who perform abortions will face up to five years in jail. The bill was [...]
President Bush announced Monday that he is sending new legislation to Congress that would give him "line-item" veto power over specific provisions in Congressional spending bills, allowing rejection of particular provisions without compromising entire legislative packages. Speaking at the White House swearing-in of new Council of Economic Advisers chair Edward Lazear, Bush said :Congress gave [...]
US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema on Monday sat 12 jurors and 6 alternates in the sentencing trial of al Qaeda co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui following several weeks of jury selection . While Moussaoui's lawyers attacked many of the 83 potential jury members as being tainted with personal connections to victims of Sept. 11, the prosecution [...]
Opening statements began Monday in the second New Jersey state trial against New Jersey-based Merck over their distribution of the painkiller Vioxx . Although a New Jersey jury found Merck not liable in a separate trial last year, in the consolidated case now at trial, plaintiffs allege that damage occurred through the long-term use of [...]
During a closed session of the Johannesburg High Court on Monday, former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty to charges that he raped a guest staying at his house. The guest, a woman who had known Zuma since she was five years old, testified about the circumstances of the incident during the [...]
