The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued five former San Diego city officials in federal court Monday, alleging they committed securities fraud by failing to disclose funding shortfalls in the city's pension and health care plans to potential buyers and sellers of San Diego's municipal bonds. The SEC press release explains the basis for [...]

Zimbabwean police have arrested at least five election officials for allegedly under-counting votes for current Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe during the March 29 presidential election , police officials confirmed Monday. Independent observers say that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate Morgan Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe, but Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Monday reversed and vacated a jury award of $2.5 million in punitive damages awarded to a Mississippi couple who lost their home in Hurricane Katrina and later sued State Farm Insurance for rejecting their homeowner insurance claim. The presiding district judge, US District Judge L. [...]

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav rejected a controversial plea agreement Tuesday, opting instead to face rape charges first brought against him in 2006. Under the terms of the plea agreement, which was upheld by the Israeli Supreme Court in February, Katsav was permitted to plead guilty to lesser sex charges of indecent assault, sexual harassment, [...]

A court in the Philippines on Tuesday sentenced nine military officers to prison for their participation in a failed 2003 coup against Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo . No shots were fired during the 2003 incident, in which 31 officers commandeered a Manila hotel, threatened to set off explosives, and held off police for 19 [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says the recently released 2003 John Yoo memo on US military interrogation techniques opened up a path to torture and leaves a great number of persons potentially criminally liable for the acts that occurred pursuant to the memo, if only we break [...]

Norman J. Broussard, et al., v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, April 7, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Melissa Goodman : "When Americans hear that the military is conducting domestic surveillance we tend to get a little squeamish. Isn't that the FBI's job? What is the military doing exactly? Who are they investigating and why? Well, here is what we do know, thanks to over 1,000 pages of records released to the ACLU [...]

The US Department of Defense said Monday that charges have been referred against Afghan Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Kamin, who is accused of providing material support to terrorism . If convicted, Kamin faces a maximum life sentence. Kamin is accused of conducting surveillance on US military bases in Afghanistan for al Qaeda and setting explosives [...]

New EU anti-terror laws proposed by the European Commission fail to adequately reconcile human rights concerns and may conflict with the Council of Europe's Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism , Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Rapporteur Dick Marty said Monday in a statement before the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and [...]