The National Institute of Health (NIH) issued proposed guidelines for funding human embryonic stem cell research Friday, which limits funding to embryos that were created to be used in fertility clinics but were no longer needed and would have been discarded. Additionally, the donor must have consented to giving the embryos for research purposes. The [...]

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Friday a proposed finding that atmospheric greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, setting the stage for government regulation of the harmful gases for the first time. Announcement of the proposed finding, which was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final review last month, [...]

A jury for a UK crown court convicted Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar Friday of supplying bomb-making materials to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a Sri Lankan separatist group. Chrishanthakumar was also convicted of receiving documents for the purpose of terrorism, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on charges of receiving military equipment, receiving [...]

The lawyer for the accused gunman on trial in India for the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks moved Friday to suppress his client's confession, arguing it was the product of torture. The lawyer also argued that the trial of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab should be moved to juvenile court because Kasab was 17 at the time [...]

The ability of councils in the UK to monitor citizens for minor infractions will be curtailed , according to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on Friday. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) , passed in 2000, gives broad powers of surveillance to councils, with reasonable suspicion, to watch with closed-circuit television and read the e-mails [...]

Wendy Doernberg, Pitt Law '11, studied Israeli law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and lived in Jerusalem for 6 months… Unlike the United States, Israel has yet to adopt a formal written constitution. Even some of the laws which form the basis for governmental decisions came into being only relatively recently. I learned while [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday that former Israeli security chief Avraham Dichter cannot be sued in the US because he is immune under traditional common law. The decision affirms the ruling of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York . Dichter faced suit by survivors [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled Thursday that oral arguments in a copyright infringement case could not be broadcast over the Internet. Respondent Joel Tenenbaum, one of many to be sued for copyright infringement, made a motion in December in the district court to allow Courtroom View Network to "webcast a [...]

US President Barack Obama on Thursday asserted his intention not to investigate individuals who used or authorized enhanced interrogation techniques the same day the Department of Justice (DOJ) released memos outlining CIA use of these techniques. The president urged the country to look forward, rather than to the past, saying: We have been through a [...]

Two families whose children were killed in the 2007 Virginia Tech school shooting filed separate lawsuits Thursday in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, asking for $10 million in compensatory damages. The parents of Julie Pryde and Erin Peterson , who were shot and killed by fellow student Seung-Hoi Cho , filed suit against the [...]