The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that the three oil drilling companies charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act have agreed to a plea agreement settling the case for $26 million. The DOJ alleged that Vetco Gray UK Limited, Vetco Gray Controls Inc., and Vetco Gray Controls Limited paid Nigerian government [...]

Thirty-eight US states and Samsung Electronics agreed Tuesday to a $90 million settlement, pending court approval, to resolve allegations that Samsung fixed prices and engaged in other anticompetitive activities in the market for DRAM memory chips for computers. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who coordinated the suit, said in a press release that the settlement [...]

Jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Wednesday condemned new charges brought against him by the Russian government earlier this week, calling the indictment "absurd and ungrounded." Prosecutors charged Khodorkovsky and business associate Platon Lebedev with money laundering and embezzlement based on allegations that Khodorkovsky used his Open Russia Foundation to funnel oil revenues away [...]

The UN signed an agreement Tuesday to create an international tribunal to try suspects accused of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. The agreement must now be ratified by the Lebanese parliament . Nabih Berri , the pro-Syrian speaker of parliament, opposes the Hariri tribunal and has refused to convene parliament, [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Kenneth Port of William Mitchell College of Law says that the looming amendment of Japan's so-called "pacifist" constitution to overtly allow greater Japanese military involvement in world affairs may prove to be one of the more tragic consequences of the so-called war on terror… Although few in the West realize it, the [...]

Opening arguments were heard on Wednesday in a defamation action brought by the Paris Mosque and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France against Charlie-Hebdo magazine and director Philippe Val for last year's republication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad originally published in a Danish newspaper in September 2005. The lawsuit alleges that by republishing [...]

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs called on four of the largest record companies who distribute their music through iTunes to allow Apple to sell music without anti-piracy protection in an letter placed on Apple's website Tuesday. Jobs presented a series of "alternatives" for the future of digital music sold through Apple, and encouraged record companies [...]

Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups, February 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the Commitments. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Army on Tuesday set a trial date for Lt. Col. Steven Lee Jordan , the only military officer to face charges in connection with abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq . In July 2008, Jordan will face a court-martial for seven violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice [...]

US Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a bill Tuesday entitled the "Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2007" designed to protect the personal information of American consumers. The legislation resembles a bill Leahy co-sponsored with then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) in 2005, which was not enacted in the [...]