US District Judge Lewis Kaplan indicated Monday that he may reconsider a 2006 ruling in which he threatened to dismiss all charges in an ongoing criminal tax shelters case against former employees of the accounting firm KPMG because federal prosecutors violated constitutional rights of the defendants by pressuring KPMG to not pay for their legal [...]

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt Monday announced the signing of a bill intended to protect the identities of individuals who provide direct support for the administration of the death penalty, formally prohibiting the disclosure of executioners' identities and creating a civil cause of action to recover damages against anyone who discloses an executioner's identity. The law, [...]

Kurdish security forces "routinely torture and deny basic due process to detainees" in northern Iraq, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) . The report found that the Asayish security forces, which are maintained separately by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) , have detained [...]

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) formally suspended the trial against former Liberian President Charles Taylor Monday, ordering the prosecution to resume its case on August 20. Taylor attended Tuesday's court session, marking the first time he appeared in court since his trial began in June. Taylor has been boycotting the proceedings , demanding [...]

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the New York Times against the US Defense and Justice Departments, ruling that the departments were not required to disclose classified records on the government's warrantless wiretapping program sought by the newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act . US District Judge Richard M. Berman ruled [...]

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano signed the Legal Arizona Workers Act Monday, legislation that requires employers to verify that employees are in the United States legally. In what Napolitano called "the most aggressive action in the country against employers who knowingly or intentionally hire undocumented workers," employers who violate the law could have their business licence [...]

The Iraqi Cabinet has approved a revised draft oil law and the Iraqi Parliament will begin debating the proposal Wednesday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Tuesday. Several amendments to the draft law were made after an earlier version of the law was opposed in parliament . Kurdish lawmakers said in April that [...]

US Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has questioned President Bush's classification of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 30-month sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice as "excessive" , saying Monday that Libby's sentence "was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country." Bush's comment accompanied his commutation of Libby's prison sentence [...]

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) has charged Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky on suspicion of plotting a violent coup against President Vladimir Putin, Berezovsky's lawyer said Monday. The charge is related to an interview Berezovsky gave to Britain's Guardian newspaper in April in which he said he was planning to forcefully remove [...]

Lawyers for Rabei Osman el Sayed , the alleged mastermind behind the 2004 Madrid train bombings , demanded Monday that Osman be acquitted, accusing prosecutors of trying to convict him "based on nothing, and with an astounding frivolousness." El Sayed was convicted in Italy for belonging to a terrorist group and was extradited to Spain [...]