A US federal jury in Louisiana Monday awarded $2.8 million in damages and penalties to an Allstate Insurance Co. policyholder in the second federal lawsuit to go to trial involving Louisiana homeowners affected by the Hurricane Katrina disaster . Homeowners Robert and Merryl Weiss sued Allstate for bad faith, alleging that the insurance carrier did [...]

Guantanamo Bay military prison detainee Abu Zubaydah denied accusations of al-Qaeda involvement and made allegations of torture, according to a transcript released Monday of his March 27 testimony before a US Combatant Status Review Tribunal . Zubaydah, a Palestinian, testified that from 1994 until approximately 2000, he worked at guest houses in Pakistan that were [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee Monday postponed until Thursday the scheduled Tuesday testimony of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales regarding his role in the firings of eight US Attorneys in the wake of Monday's Virginia Polytechnic Institute shootings that left 33 people dead and wounded at least 15 others. Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [...]

A Russian court Monday upheld a decision to move former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky from a Siberian penal colony to a Moscow prison while officials investigate new charges of money laundering . The ruling also applies to Khodorkovsky's business partner Platon Lebedev , who faces embezzlement and money laundering charges. Defense lawyers welcomed the decision, [...]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende Monday criticized efforts to create a new constitution for the European Union , saying in a joint press conference in London that member states could be better served simply by amending existing treaties. Blair also expressed concern that an entirely new constitution might [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Long Island Care At Home v. Coke , 06-593 , in which the Court considered whether a 1975 US Labor Department exemption rule that eliminates overtime for "companionship services" contravenes congressional intent to provide overtime in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) . Evelyn Coke, a [...]

The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Monday publicly rejected allegations that it had negotiated or sought a deal with Belgrade officials to conceal documents relating to the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro in the International Court of Justice. Last week former [...]

Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika submitted a request to the UK Home Office on Monday to revoke the asylum status of Russian business billionaire Boris Berezovsky . Chaika also repeated previous requests for the UK to extradite Berezovsky, who has been charged with plotting a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin based on Berezovsky's comments [...]

The Seoul District Court in South Korea sentenced five people to jail Monday for spying for North Korea . Group ringleader Korean-American Michael Jang received a nine-year sentence for encouraging anti-US sentiment in South Korea under orders from North Korea in 2005. Jang initiated contact with North Korean agents in 1998 and first established a [...]

The trial of Jose Padilla and two co-defendants on terrorism charges began Monday with jury selection. Defense attorneys have expressed concern that potential jurors may have been tainted by early accusations that Padilla had planned to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" , an allegation not among the charges against Padilla, and that jurors might [...]