The UK High Court on Thursday rejected an appeal brought by the family of a Brazilian man who was shot and killed by London police two weeks after the July 2005 London transit bombings when police mistook him for alleged terrorist Hussain Osman . The appeal was brought against a July decision by prosecutors not [...]

The UN General Assembly held a ceremony Thursday to administer the oath of office to new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon . Ban, appointed to the position in October, will succeed Kofi Annan when the two-term secretary-general steps down on December 31. The General Assembly also paid tribute to Annan's 10 years of service. In remarks [...]

The Argentinean Senate has unanimously approved a bill that refers to the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey around the time of World War I as genocide and establishes a day of annual commemoration on April 24. The bill has already passed in the lower house of parliament and must still be signed by the [...]

The US Defense Department Thursday announced the release of 16 Saudi Arabian detainees from Guantanamo Bay . Saudi Arabian Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul said that the detainees would now be "subject to the Saudi system." Over 40 Saudi detainees have now been released from the US detention facility since May. A total of [...]

Chinese human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng has been convicted by a court in Beijing of inciting subversion of state power , his lawyers said Thursday. Gao was convicted after entering a guilty plea, but his lawyers – who were not permitted to attend court proceedings – said they doubted the credibility of his "spontaneous" admission [...]

A federal jury in New Orleans returned a verdict in favor of pharmaceutical giant Merck Wednesday, concluding that the company did not fail to adequately warn a Tennessee man's doctors about risks associated with the painkiller Vioxx . Anthony Dedrick suffered a heart attack after taking Vioxx, and his lawyers argued that Merck failed to [...]

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled Thursday that not all targeted killings of Palestinian militants are prohibited by international law. Two Israeli human rights groups filed a petition in 2002 seeking a ban on the Israeli policy, which government officials defend as the most effective method of stopping Palestinian terrorists from bombing Israel targets. The high [...]

Jordan Paust : "The Constitution expressly mandates that "he privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Case of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." U.S. Const., art. I, s. 9, cl. 2. During the formation of the Constitution, there had been a proposal by Charles [...]

US District Judge Richard J. Leon said Wednesday that systems set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to manage housing payments for victims of Hurricane Katrina had created a "legal disaster" and ordered several FEMA officials to appear in court Monday to testify about the housing program. Leon ruled last month that FEMA [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Wednesday that a 1982 ban on corporate farming in Nebraska is unconstitutional because it violates the dormant commerce clause. The federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision , which was appealed by the state attorney general. As described by the appeals court, the ban [...]