In the latest corruption scandal involving Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian and his family, a Taiwanese court on Wednesday sentenced Chen son-in-law Chao Chien-min to six years in prison for insider trading. Chao Chien-min, who is married to Chen's daughter, was convicted of using insider information to earn $922,000 by purchasing shares of the company Taiwan [...]

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has initiated a defamation lawsuit against a computer specialist believed to have included his name among a list of people falsely accused of accepting kickbacks to secret bank accounts from an arms deal. Sarkozy rival Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was questioned by judges for more than 17 hours last [...]

The director of China’s State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) claimed Tuesday in an official report that corruption on the part of local government leaders has contributed to the rampant pollution found in many of China’s cities. SEPA Director Zhou Shengxian told the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress that through threats of retaliatory measures [...]

Former US President Gerald R. Ford died Tuesday at the age of 93. A 1941 Yale Law School graduate who became GOP House Minority Leader during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, he eventually became Vice-President and then the 38th president of the United States in 1974, taking over after predecessor Richard Nixon became the first [...]

South Coast Air Quality Management District v. EPA, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, December 26, 2006 Act" in setting its smog standards]. Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Two civil rights groups filed suit in federal court Tuesday to block enforcement of a town ordinance passed in November by the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch requiring apartment renters to show proof of US residency and penalizing landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. The ACLU of Texas , in conjunction with the Mexican American [...]

The bicameral committee of US lawmakers responsible for hammering out a comprehensive immigration reform package may recommend to the new Congress beginning in January that illegal immigrants not be required to leave the country before petitioning for legal status, according to the New York Times Tuesday. The committee, led by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and [...]

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak promised Tuesday to repeal Egypt's ongoing 25-year state of emergency once a new terrorism law is passed and to amend the Egyptian Constitution to formally recognize the people of Egypt as the source of sovereign power and permit parliamentary parties to nominate presidential candidates. Mubarak made similar promises last December, though [...]

The Saudi Arabia Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that the government has freed eighteen former Guantanamo Bay detainees "after meeting necessary legal conditions." A spokesperson for the ministry stated that the government will continue to try to urge repatriation of Saudis from Guantanamo Bay , but was unclear as to how many Saudis are still detained [...]

The Russian Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a sentence of life imprisonment for Nurpashi Kulayev, the only terrorist survivor convicted in connection with the 2004 Beslan school siege . Kulayev filed the appeal in June, arguing that his conviction was "unlawful and groundless" as the prosecution failed to present evidence implicating him in the terrorism and [...]