The Botswana Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that the indigenous Bushmen , or San, can drill wells in their village in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) , reversing a lower court ruling . The court found that the Bushmen have the right to use a previous borehole, that the government must pay the Bushmen’s [...]

A federal judge on Wednesday declared Allen Stanford incompetent to stand trial in connection with a $7 billion fraud scheme. Judge David Hittner of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas , who postponed the trial earlier this month, ordered Stanford to enter detoxification for an addiction to anti-anxiety and anti-depression medications [...]

Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika has signed into law a bill permitting the government to ban media outlets that its information ministry declares contrary to public interest. The new law, which amends the 2009 penal code amendment bill, has already drawn heavy criticism from regional media watchdogs, such as the Media Council of Malawi (MCM) [...]

More than 1,000 protesters have been detained in Egypt as demonstrations against the 30-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak entered their third day on Thursday. Protests were held Thursday in Egypt’s capital Cairo, as well as the city of Suez, and are reportedly spreading across the country . In Suez, police resorted the use of [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit against Blackwater , now known as Xe Services , can proceed in state court. The suit revolves around a 2007 shooting incident in the Nisour Square area of Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. A [...]

MetroPCS , the fifth-largest cell phone company in the US, said Tuesday that it has filed an appeal challenging new net neutrality rules that will allow the government to regulate Internet traffic. Roger Linquist, MetroPCS’s president and CEO, said in a statement that his company’s reasons to sue were similar to Verizon’s, which filed a [...]

“JURIST Guest Columnist Alexei Trochev of the University of Wisconsin Law School says judicial dependence in Ukraine did not begin with Yanukovych and it will not end with his departure from politics because Yanukovych’s successor will also adapt the judiciary for his or her own needs and constitutional rules are in favor of the powerful [...]

Twelve plaintiffs on Monday combined to file a lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court against Countrywide Financial Corporation alleging widespread fraud that resulted in substantial financial losses. The plaintiffs invested hundreds of millions of dollars with the Bank of America (BOA) subsidiary between 2005 and 2007, believing the purchases of mortgage-backed securities to [...]

The US Courts for the Ninth Circuit announced on Tuesday that Chief Judge Roslyn Silver of the US District Court of Arizona has declared a judicial emergency under the Speedy Trial Act . Judge Silver’s order suspends the time limits set forth in 18 USC § 3161 , which require that a federal criminal trial [...]

A Vietnamese court on Wednesday sentenced former communist official Vi Duc Hoi to eight years in prison for advocating democracy and a multiparty system. Hoi was convicted of violating Vietnam’s national security for information contained in articles he posted on the internet. According to Hoi’s defense lawyer, he was convicted of spreading anti-government propaganda on [...]