A Pakistani court Wednesday dropped five graft cases against Asif Ali Zardari , the new leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and widower of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto . The court also released Zardari's assets, which had been frozen pending the corruption cases. The court's decision follows a "reconciliation ordinance" signed in [...]

The head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday refused to disclose a timeline for the agency's compliance with last year's Supreme Court ruling that the EPA has the authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate the emission of "greenhouse gases," such as carbon dioxide, by automobiles. In its decision, the Supreme [...]

Ass'n of Am. Physicians & Surgeons, Inc. et al., v. Food & Drug Admin., et al., US District Court for the District of Columbia, March 4, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Russian human rights ombudsman said Tuesday that Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev has to honor his declared respect for Russian law and freedoms so that Russian courts and police will follow suit. Vladimir Lukin , a member of the liberal Yabloko party who was appointed as the country's ombudsman in 1997, said that Medvedev must [...]

International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Tuesday that he "has not and will not" meet with any member of Uganda's Lord Resistance Army (LRA) . The statement came in response to reports that representatives of LRA leader Joseph Kony were planning to meet with him, apparently to seek the withdrawal of ICC [...]

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande and the registrar of the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) , Adama Dieng signed an agreement Tuesday allowing those convicted by the genocide tribunal to serve their sentences in Rwanda. Rwanda joins Benin, France, Italy, Mali, Swaziland and Switzerland as a country qualified to hold those convicted by [...]

US Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the US District Court of Arizona to charges including extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud in connection with a complex land scheme. Renzi was indicted last month along with Texas real estate investor James W. Sandlin and former business partner Andrew Beardall. Renzi was released [...]

Italian prosecutors have filed an appeal of a Rome court's dismissal of a criminal case against US Army Spc. Mario Lozano for the alleged 2005 murder of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and the attempted murders of agent Andrea Carpani and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq, according to Tuesday media reports. The Italian agents [...]

The California Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in consolidated cases challenging California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage . In 2006, the state Attorney General requested that the Court review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold the same-sex marriage ban. Plaintiffs in In re Marriage Cases argued that the right to marry is protected [...]

Some 200 Afghan parliamentarians demonstrated Tuesday at the parliament building in Kabul against last month's reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste . The protesters urged the government to call on Danish envoys to discuss what they saw as a challenge to Muslim communities across the world. They [...]