The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice on Thursday ruled that Wal-Mart de Mexico may not pay employees in part with vouchers redeemable only at its stores. The court nullified the employment contract of a worker who challenged the voucher payments, finding that they violated Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution , which guarantees the right [...]

The India Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) announced Thursday that it will review the country's controversial anti-dowry act because increasing numbers of Indian women have issued complaints about misuse. WCD Joint Secretary Kiran Chadha said : We will be meeting a panel of lawyers and legal experts to review the law. We have [...]

The hearings for two US soldiers charged in connection with the death of an Iraqi detainee have been scheduled for September 11 and 20, representatives of the US military said on Thursday. Staff Sgt. Hal M. Warner was charged in August with premeditated murder, assault, accessory after the fact, making a false official statement and [...]

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has postponed implementation of a program to issue identification cards giving city residents access to government services without regard to immigration status. A mayoral spokesman said Thursday that the delay is necessary to ensure that the program does not violate state or federal law. An ordinance approved by the city's [...]

Spain has created a panel of legal and health experts to consider liberalizing the country's current abortion laws, Equality Minister Bibiana Aido told reporters on Thursday. Abortion was legalized in the country in 1985, but only in cases of rape, developmental defect of the fetus, or certification that the pregnancy posed a psychological or physical [...]

Former US lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy. Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of the US District Court for the District of Columbia imposed less than the maximum sentence of 12.5 years but more than the three years and three months recommended by prosecutors from [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has renewed its call for an investigation into the actions of law enforcement officials at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Minnesota this week. The ACLU alleges that officers in St. Paul conducted "mass arrests, police raids on private homes and several journalists" in possible violation of First and [...]

Canadian-based Teck Cominco Ltd. asked US District Court Judge John Sedwick Wednesday to approve a $120M settlement agreement with six Eskimo plaintiffs from the Alaskan village of Kivalino. The agreement stems from a 2002 lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Alaska by residents living near the company's Red Dog Mine, [...]

Pakistani lawyers demanding that the government reinstate judges ousted last year by former President Pervez Musharraf clashed with police in Islamabad on Thursday, according to media reports. Television images showed police beating the lawyers with batons outside Parliament, in a confrontation that reportedly began after an estimated 100 demonstrators tried to enter the nearby Supreme [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged two former brokers for Credit-Suisse with defrauding clients of $1 billion by selling subprime securities that they represented as being backed by government-guaranteed student loans. The SEC complaint, filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York , accuses Tzolov and [...]