The Utah Supreme Court Friday ruled to remove a polygamist judge from the bench, explaining that Hildale Justice Court Judge Walter Steed clearly broke the law by being married to three women at once. Steed worked as a part-time justice court judge since 1980 in the border town of Hildale, a polygamous town. The high [...]

Police in Manila Saturday raided the offices of the Manila Daily Tribune and detained several high-profile critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines a day after she declared a state of emergency in order to stop an alleged coup against her government. Since her declaration, Arroyo has banned rallies in the country, but hundreds [...]

A Nigerian court in the southern city of Port Harcourt Friday ordered Royal Dutch Shell to pay $1.5 billion to compensate local communities for environmental pollution caused by the company's activities in the southern Niger delta region, the focus of long criticism by environment and rights groups. Shell's oil production activities make up nearly half [...]

US District Judge Reggie B. Walton Friday granted defense attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby access to Libby's personal handwritten notes taken over a nine-month period around the time that the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame was first published in the media. Libby's defense team plans to use the notes to support Libby's [...]

In a speech Friday in Cleveland, US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Mark Everson said that the IRS had found a sharp increase in prohibited political activity by 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charities, including some churches, during the 2004 election cycle. According to an IRS study , three quarters of 82 charitable organizations examined engaged in some [...]

HB 1215, State of South Dakota, passed by the South Dakota House of Representatives February 24, 2006 . Excerpt: No person may knowingly administer to, prescribe for, or procure for, or sell to any pregnant woman any medicine, drug, or other substance with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life [...]

Proclamation No. 1017, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President, Republic of the Philippines, February 24, 2006 . Read the full text of the proclamation. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, Decision on Assigned Counsel Request for Provisional Release, Trial Chamber, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, February 24, 2006 . Read the full text of the decision. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey filed suit in a New Jersey Superior Court Friday to try to block Dubai Ports World , a company from the United Arab Emirates , from taking control of several United States ports. Citing security concerns, the Port Authority claimed that DP World violated its lease [...]

Defense contractor Mitchell Wade pleaded guilty in US District Court in Washington, DC on Friday to conspiring to funnel more than $1 million in bribes to former US Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham . Wade, the former president of MZM Inc, a Washington firm that does classified intelligence work for the military, admitted that he intended [...]