Attorneys acting on behalf of over a dozen Hurricane Katrina disaster victims have filed a complaint seeking class action status against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other government agencies. The lawsuit accuses FEMA of wrongfully denying the plaintiffs temporary housing and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for the plaintiffs in the form of [...]
Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Stankovic said Friday on Serbian state television that Theodor Meron, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , had threatened Serbia with "excommunicat from Euro-Atlantic integration" if it failed to turn over indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic to the Hague-based court before the end of the year. [...]
The US Senate may reconsider Thursday's 49-42 vote to deny Guantanamo prisoners habeas corpus access to federal courts to contest their detentions as early as next week, according to negotiators on the issue. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is expected to introduce an additional amendment on Monday that would remove the habeas corpus provision from the [...]
Thousands of Paris police officers are enforcing a new ban on public rallies in the French capital "likely to start or fuel disorder" declared under emergency powers granted to local authorities in the wake of widespread rioting by immigrant youths. Police said the ban, set to last from Saturday to Sunday morning, was prompted by [...]
Colombia's Constitutional Court on Friday voted 7-2 to approve the country's new Electoral Guarantees Law, establishing clear rules to prevent incumbent presidents who run for re-election from exploiting their power for political gain. The announcement follows last month's approval of a constitutional amendment that allows presidents to serve more than one four-year term. The new [...]
Two UN legal experts from the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees will travel to North Korea later next week to conduct a legal training session designed to improve understanding of UN treaties and their implications. Training leader Palitha Kohona noted that the sessions will mark the first time a legal delegation has gone [...]
The Haitian Electoral Council ordered Friday that the names of two Haitian-born US citizens, Dumarsais Simeus and Samir Mourra, be taken off the ballot of authorized candidates for the country's upcoming presidential election . The decision is in direct violation of a Haitian Supreme Court ruling that said that Simeus, a Texas-based businessman, should be [...]
The Federal Court of Canada has announced that it will hear the asylum appeal of US deserter Jeremy Hinzman . In January 2004, days before his scheduled deployment to Iraq, Hinzman deserted the US army and fled to Canada where he sought asylum and accused the US of committing war crimes in Iraq. In March, [...]
Delegates from over 120 member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concluded their tenth annual, five-day Conference of the State Parties at The Hague Friday, and agreed to improve efforts to fully implement the mandates of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty in their respective countries. The states adopted a [...]
Attorneys for US Representative Tom DeLay have requested internal communications from Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in an effort to uncover information showing opposition to indicting the congressman. DeLay's legal team hopes the documents will strengthen their argument that the conspiracy and money laundering charges against him should be dismissed. Three grand juries heard [...]
