Democratic senators on the US Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday pressed apparent inconsistencies in answers to questions by Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito during his third day of his confirmation hearings. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) contrasted Alito's Tuesday testimony that he would keep an "open mind" on any future abortion cases before the Supreme Court [...]
Spanish authorities have charged former Argentine naval officer Ricardo Miguel Cavallo with genocide for his involvement in the disappearance of hundreds of people during a 1976 Argentine military coup. Papers published Wednesday allege that between 20,000 and 30,000 people were forcibly kidnapped or "disappeared" following the takeover, including approximately 600 Spanish citizens. Just under 9,000 [...]
Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said Wednesday that the EU constitution is "dead" as far as the Netherlands is concerned, rejecting promised efforts earlier this week by Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik to attempt to revive the charter. Bot spoke after meeting with Plassnik, whose country currently holds the EU presidency , and reiterated that [...]
The East African country of Djibouti has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to settle a dispute over whether a French judge has the authority to summon high-level Djibouti witnesses to investigate the possible assassination of a French judge in 1995. Judge Bernard Borrel's death was originally ruled a suicide, but French investigators now [...]
A German court on Wednesday announced that the trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel will restart on February 9, with a verdict expected sometime in March. Zundel's trial was postponed in November after Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen fired one of Zundel's defense lawyers . Germany has charged Zundel with incitement, libel and disparaging the dead in [...]
Saidjahan Zainabiddinov, an Uzbek human rights activist who witnessed an violent uprising in Andijan last May has been put on trial on charges of undermining the constitutional system and assisting terrorism for aiding journalists covering the uprising and telephoning foreign embassies. Zainabiddinov gave eyewitness accounts of the incident which took place when thousands of protesters [...]
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday sent memos to immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals informing them that he has ordered a review of US immigration courts. Gonzales said the review was necessary because of the poor quality of work and discourteous conduct of an increasing number of the judges employed by [...]
The New Jersey Legislature has passed two bills that, if enacted into law, will increase the legal rights of same-sex couples . In one bill, same-sex couples will have the same rights as married couples regarding inheritance and funeral arrangements; in the second, gay couples will have access to health benefits if one partner works [...]
The terror suspect detention facility at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay marked its fourth anniversary Wednesday, the same day military tribunals for suspected terrorists resumed after a year-long hiatus. Separate proceedings were scheduled for Ali Hamza al Bahlul, a Yemeni citizen accused of working as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, and Canadian [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that a death sentence can stand in some circumstances even when the sentencing jury relied in part on a factor later found invalid. In Brown v. Sanders , the Court considered the appeal of convicted murderer Ronald Sanders, sentenced to death in by a California jury in 1982. [...]
