US Senior District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. of the US Southern District of Mississippi remanded to Mississippi state court Wednesday a key Hurricane Katrina case involving whether insurance exclusion clauses for flood damage mean that storm surge damages are excluded as well. With state courts being typically more plaintiff-friendly in interpreting such insurance clauses, Mississippi [...]

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo , and Vice President Atiku Abubakar filed competing lawsuits in the capital city of Abuja Wednesday over whether Abubakar should resign from office after accepting a presidential nomination from a competing party. While Abubakar claims that he has the right to remain Vice President until his term expires or if he [...]

Governor Bob Taft (R-OH) Wednesday received a public reprimand from the Ohio Supreme Court for ethics violations stemming from charges that he received over 50 gifts worth up to $6,000 during four years in office. The reprimand will be a permanent mark on his record as an attorney, but while the justices had the option [...]

Doyle v. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, December 27, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters Wednesday that "the door remains open" for possible changes to the structure and procedure of a divisive UN-supported international tribunal being proposed to try suspects accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. Siniora didn't specify what the possible amendments were, but said they would [...]

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled unanimously Wednesday that it could not force the state legislature to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. After lawmakers failed to vote on the ballot initiative in November, Governor Mitt Romney sued the Commonwealth . In its opinion , the court wrote: We have no [...]

Iraqi judges and lawyers Wednesday mulled over a potential constitutional complication in the wake of Tuesday's Iraqi High Tribunal appeals chamber affirmation of a death sentence against ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity committed in the town of Dujail in 1982. Under the Iraqi constitution, such a death sentence requires the authorization [...]

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 [...]