Three US Justice Department agencies – the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) , the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the FBI – are freezing or slowing recruitment efforts largely as a result of a lack of increased funding from Congress' failure to approve requested 2007 budget increases for the Justice Department. The [...]

The US Supreme Court Friday granted certiorari in four cases , including one that will determine if tobacco companies are protected from judgments in state courts on the grounds that cigarettes are federally regulated. The appeal, Watson v. Philip Morris, Cos. (05-1284) , was filed by two Arkansas women who found their state court case [...]

Germany’s highest court, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, announced Friday that it will not hear the appeal of the 15-year sentence of convicted September 11 conspirator Mounir al-Motassadeq . Moroccan-born Motassadeq has another appeal to German appellate courts filed, but it is unknown when it will be considered. Lawyers for Motassadeq have also said [...]

Spanish police arrested former Argentine President Isabel Peron on Friday for her alleged involvement in the disappearance of political opponent Hector Aldo Fagetti Gallego in 1976. Argentine Federal Judge Raul Acosta issued the order for her arrest on Thursday. An anonymous source within the judge's chambers told AP that Peron, who has lived in Spain [...]

Bryan Wagner, the private investigator involved in the Hewlett-Packard corporate spying scandal pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. Wagner was accused of using used the social security number of a targeted reporter to obtain the reporter's telephone records, which Wagner provided to other co-conspirators. The charges carry a possible [...]

The federal district court that will hold the trial of alleged terrorist Jose Padilla and two other alleged al-Qaeda operatives announced Friday that it will delay the trial for 3 months, partly in response to the defense’s request to determine Padilla’s mental competency . Evaluations of Padilla by a psychiatrist and clinical psychologist suggest that [...]

Human Rights Watch has urged the European Union to "fill the leadership void on human rights" left after allegations of torture and US detention practices have undermined American credibility in the human rights arena. In the introduction to HRW's World Report 2007 , released Thursday, HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth wrote: In the past, many [...]

The Bush Administration said Thursday it will propose legislation easing some anti-terrorism restrictions in order to allow foreigners who have helped armed groups not considered terrorists to seek asylum or resettle in the United States. As a result of antiterrorism laws such as the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act put in place after [...]

A political confrontation between the Verkhovna Rada , the Ukraine parliament, and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko appears to be heading to the country's Constitutional Court after the parliament Friday passed legislation to define and expand the powers of the cabinet in defiance of an earlier presidential veto. Yushchenko promised to challenge the new legislation, supported [...]

A Chinese court rejected the final appeal Friday of Chen Guangcheng , a blind Chinese human rights legal activist, who was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for damaging property and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." The Intermediate Court in Linyi city upheld the verdict and sentence after a Chinese intermediate [...]