The Russian Supreme Court on Wednesday declared the 1918 killing of Tsar Nicholas II an act of political "repression." The ruling, long sought by the Tsar's descendants, is seen an exoneration of the country's last monarch, who had been villainized as "Bloody Nicholas" since the country's Bolshevik revolution which led to his ouster and death. [...]

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) released a report Wednesday expressing concern over a proposed UK anti-terror bill which would allow authorities to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days . The group said that to decrease the risk of mistreatment, the [...]

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Merck & Co. in support of state agencies that were harmed by Merck's allegedly deceptive marketing campaign promoting its prescription painkiller Vioxx . The lawsuit filed in the US District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana claims that Merck's marketing campaign was used to [...]

Under a new judicial dress code that took effect Wednesday, civil and family judges in the Judiciary of England and Wales will no longer wear wigs during court proceedings. The new dress code also features redesigned robes , intended to give a more modern and grounded appearance to members of the judiciary. The dress reforms [...]

Serbian President Boris Tadic refused to rule out partitioning parts of Kosovo , should other options regarding the resolution of a dispute between Serbia and the newly independent state fail. In an interview with Serbian television channel RTS , Tadic said that the option is "not off the table." Alexander Ivanko, the Director of Public [...]

The trial of former Yugoslav army chief of staff and general Momcilo Perisic , was delayed indefinitely Wednesday as there was a procedural glitch in the naming of judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia . Perisic was indicted before by ICTY in 2005 on charges including murder, persecution on grounds of [...]

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to reconsider last term's decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana , holding that Louisiana could not impose the death penalty for the rape of a child. The court voted 7-2 to reject federal and state prosecutors' petitions for rehearing of the case. In the court's modified opinion released Wednesday, [...]

The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday implemented regulations denying hospitals payment for treating conditions caused by some common medical errors . Those regulations, announced last year, contain a so-called "never list" of preventable conditions for which hospitals may bill neither Medicare nor patients, including certain hospital-acquired infections, bedsores and complications [...]

A US district judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) seeking damages for the injuries and deaths of US citizens in attacks in Israel. District Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District of New York rejected defense arguments that the Palestinian groups [...]

Awzar Thi : "Whether the release of some nine thousand prisoners from Burma's jails last week was an act of self-described goodwill or a strategic manoeuvre by a government preparing the latest phase in its program for continued political control is of little significance when seen against the country's unchanging legal codes, courts and policing [...]