Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon Thursday ordered the exhumation of 19 mass graves in Spain, launching an investigation into the disappearances of tens of thousands of people beginning in the Spanish Civil War , and continuing through the early years of Francisco Franco's dictatorship . In a 68-page writ , Garzon argued the mass disappearances constitute [...]
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The FBI is investigating allegations of voter registration fraud involving the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) ahead of the November presidential election. According to senior law enforcement officials quoted by AP Thursday, the FBI is analyzing evidence gathered from recent raids of ACORN state headquarters to determine whether there is a nationwide [...]
Vietnam's Hanoi People's Court on Wednesday sentenced journalist Nguyen Viet Chien of Thanh Nien news agency to two years in prison for "abusing democratic freedoms" to infringe state interests for his reporting on the so-called PMU 18 corruption scandal . Nguyen's co-defendant, Nguyen Van Hai of Tuoi Tre news agency , received a two year [...]
US insurance giant American International Group (AIG) is lobbying state governments to relax strict, recently enacted rules designed to provide greater oversight of the mortgage lending industry, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The rules are contained in the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 , which was signed into law by President Bush at [...]
The Pakistani cabinet led by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani Wednesday approved changes to a statute governing the country's lawyers and endorsed a draft bill that would establish a new National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR). The changes to the Legal Practitioners Act of 1973 would undo an amendment to the Act promulgated by [...]
A commission established to investigate the political and ethnic violence that followed Kenya's disputed December 2007 presidential election released a report on Wednesday recommending the establishment of an international tribunal to try suspected perpetrators. The Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence cited “systematic attacks on Kenyans based on their ethnicity and their political leanings” and [...]
US President George W. Bush on Tuesday signed a bill designed to further insulate federal inspectors general (IGs) from political interference. The Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 is the latest in a series of amendments to the Inspector General Act of 1978 , which created the oversight offices within executive agencies. The new law [...]
A judge on the Constitutional Court of Italy on Wednesday suspended the trial of 26 Americans and five former Italian intelligence officials for the 2003 abduction and rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr to consider whether to compel a witness to answer questions that may implicate state secrets. During cross-examination in a closed [...]
An urgent effort by the Bush administration to transfer 17 Guantanamo detainees outside the US has stalled as a result of a bitter interagency dispute, according to a New York Times report on Wednesday. Last week, US District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ordered the 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist William G. Ross of Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, says that when they go to the polls in November, American voters should carefully consider the candidates' positions and likely impact on the federal courts as the outcome of the 2008 election could profoundly influence the decisions of those courts, and especially [...]
