Serge Brammertz , the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court who is heading the UN's independent investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , on Tuesday met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss Syria's alleged involvement in the 2005 bombing which killed Hariri. Earlier this year Assad rejected requests [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday handed down opinions in two cases, including Northern Insurance v. Chatham County , 04-1618, where the Court held that an entity that is not entitled to immunity under the Eleventh Amendment cannot assert "residual sovereign immunity" as a defense to an admiralty suit under common law. In the case, [...]
Former Computer Associates CEO Sanjay Kumar pleaded guilty Monday to charges of securities fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with allegations that the company improperly booked $2.2 billion in revenue in 1999 and 2000. Kumar and former CA sales head Stephen Richards, who also pleaded guilty Monday, initially pleaded not guilty in September [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has refused to conduct a full court rehearing of a three-judge panel's ruling that a Mercer County, Kentucky courthouse display containing the Ten Commandments is constitutional. In the decision last December, the judges distinguished the Mercer County display from displays ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court [...]
Leading Tuesday's international brief, Iran could be the target of a new UN Security Council resolution mandating compliance with an International Atomic Energy Agency order that Iran cease production of enriched uranium . US, UK, and French officials have reportedly met and agreed on a template for a binding resolution that would force Iran to [...]
Yemeni al Qaeda member Khaled Mohammed Abdullah al-Batati, one of the 23 prisoners who escaped from prison in February , has turned himself in to authorities. Al-Batati, the eighth escapee to turn himself in, was serving a three-year sentence for plotting an attack upon the British and Italian embassies and French cultural center in Sanaa [...]
Opposition political parties in Nepal on Tuesday formally ended several weeks of pro-democracy protests after King Gyanendra ordered the reinstatement of parliament on Monday. Leaders from the seven-party opposition alliance said that they wanted Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala, a former prime minister, to head the new government. The Nepal House of Representatives is [...]
The chief military prosecutor for Guantanamo Bay , USAF Col. Morris Davis , Monday announced plans to charge an additional two dozen Guantanamo detainees and to seek the death penalty against several. Three of the 10 detainees originally charged are in the midst of pre-trial hearings which resume this week . One, Algerian Sufyian Barhoumi [...]
DC sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad agreed Monday to allow three attorneys to stand by and provide advice upon request when he begins representing himself at his trial , set to begin May 1. Maryland Judge James L. Ryan granted the defendant's request to represent himself last month despite protestation from Muhammad's court-appointed attorneys that [...]
Former president of Liberia Charles Taylor is being requested to testify at the trial of a Dutch timber trader indicted for facilitating the import of weapons to Liberia in exchange for timber, a violation of a UN arms embargo. Dutch prosecutors assert that while heading timber companies in Liberia, Guus Van Kouwenhoven established a close [...]