ACLU v. NSA, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, August 17, 2006 . Excerpt: Defendants assert that they cannot defend this case without the exposure of state secrets. This court disagrees. The Bush Administration has repeatedly told the general public that there is a valid basis in [...]

A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced former Yukos security chief Alexei Pichugin to 24 years in prison for organizing a series of contract killings, including the 1998 murder of Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk. Prosecutors filed the murder charges against Pichugin and others in April 2005. Puchugin's defense team had argued that the charges [...]

AP is reporting that US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has ruled that the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program is unconstitutional and has ordered the National Security Agency to immediately cease using warrantless wiretaps to intercept communications of suspected terrorists when one party to the communication is outside the US. Taylor ruled that the NSA [...]

A federal jury in New Orleans on Thursday found Merck negligent for failing to warn doctors about the risks associated with taking the painkiller Vioxx and found that Merck knowingly misrepresented the risks involved. The verdict comes in the case of retired FBI agent Gerald Barnett who blamed Vioxx for his 2002 heart attack after [...]

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon on Wednesday filed a notice of appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit , and told reporters that he intends to appeal a federal court ruling granting summary judgment to a class action lawsuit against Missouri that requires the state to provide inmates with transportation to [...]

The United Nations has opened an investigation into a suspected child prostitution ring in the Democratic Republic of Congo facilitated by UN peacekeepers and Congo soldiers, the UN Mission in DR Congo (MONUC) said Thursday. There have been claims that UN peacekeepers have aided the alleged prostitution ring by luring young girls to work as [...]

Peruvian prosecutors have filed informal charges against Ollanta Humala , the opposition leader who narrowly lost the recent presidential election to Alan Garcia, for murder, torture and kidnapping stemming from his position as an army captain in Peru's San Martin province during the 1990s. A judge must decide whether to formally indict Humala on the [...]

British authorities investigating a foiled terror plot to bomb airplanes crossing the Atlantic Ocean last week released a suspect without charge on Thursday. The suspect was arrested Tuesday. London's Metropolitan Police Service (Met) did not explain details of the suspect's release. Authorities also released another suspect last Friday, just one day after making the initial [...]

A US Marine has been charged with three counts of assault and one count of making a false statement in connection with an incident occurring on April 10 near the village of Hamdania in Iraq, according to a Marine spokesman speaking Wednesday. Lt. Nathan Phan allegedly beat and choked three Iraqi civilians, putting his unloaded [...]

Indonesian authorities on Thursday shortened prison sentences for 10 people convicted in connection with the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed over 200 people. Nine prisoners with sentences between five and 16 years had their sentences cut by four months for good behavior. A tenth had his sentence shortened by 3 months, allowing him to [...]