The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in the last three cases of its 2006 Term Thursday, including the consolidated cases of Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and Parents Involved v. Seattle School District , where the Court struck down public school consideration of race when assigning students to public schools. In the [...]

Serge Brammertz , the former Belgian federal prosecutor who currently heads the UN investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, is expected to replace Carla Del Ponte as the next chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , UN officials said Wednesday. The officials [...]

The Supreme Court in the Russian federal republic of Kabardino-Balkaria filed criminal negligence charges Wednesday against two police officers who headed a police department in the neighboring federal republic of Ingushetia for allegedly failing to prevent the terrorists responsible for the 2004 Beslan hostage seizure from setting camps in their jurisdiction. The court said that [...]

Former US Attorney Paul K. Charlton testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution Wednesday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did not give enough consideration to the quality of evidence or the recommendations of the US Attorney and prosecutors involved in a case when pushing for the use of the death penalty in [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Wednesday to re-hear the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri , appealing the court's panel decision that the military cannot seize and indefinitely imprison civilians lawfully residing in the US as "enemy combatants" . In its petition for a [...]

US and European negotiators reached an interim agreement Wednesday on how trans-Atlantic airline passenger data-sharing will be conducted, essentially modifying and renewing an existing interim agreement which is set to expire at the end of July. According to German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble , the new agreement will reduce the current 34 pieces of passenger [...]

The Council of Europe (COE) reported Wednesday that several member states frequently fail to comply with judicial decisions against public authorities handed down by their own domestic courts. A COE expert panel determined last week that general non-enforcement of court decisions is widespread in Georgia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. In a statement summarizing [...]

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed legislation Wednesday amending Kyrgyzstan's criminal codes and abolishing the death penalty . According to the law, death penalty sentences will be replaced with life sentences. The legislation also mandates that arrest warrants be issued by courts and that prison sentences for some crimes be reduced. The Kyrgyzstan constitution was amended [...]

The US Senate Wednesday voted down two proposed amendments to the comprehensive immigration reform bill formally revived Tuesday. Both proposals were part of Amendment 1934 , sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA). A proposal by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) to limit permanent legal residency status only to immigrants who have been in the country at [...]

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Wednesday ruled 5-4 against reinstating a conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two of his former associates. The holding affirmed a lower court decision that the charge of conspiring to violate the state's election code could not be applied to the code as it was [...]