US District Judge James R. Spencer of the Eastern District of Virginia Wednesday rejected the disputed settlement pact between the maker of the Blackberry communications device, Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) , and the patent owner of the technology behind the device, NTP, Inc. The $450 million settlement, which the companies agreed to in March, [...]

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Wednesday filed a legal challenge to a report issued by Justice John Gomery in a federal investigation into a sponsorship program that found Chretien responsible for abuses. In a motion filed in federal court on the final day of the appeals period, Chretien charged Gomery with bias in [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday delayed the transfer of Jose Padilla from a Navy brig in South Carolina to Justice Department custody until the court receives more information from the government and Padilla's lawyers. The 4th Circuit said that it needs more information before it orders the transfer because [...]

While serving as an assistant to the solicitor general during the Reagan administration, US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito advocated a gradual challenge to the fringes of Roe v. Wade, rather than an all-out assault on the landmark abortion ruling, according to documents released Wednesday. In a memo , Alito called for a policy of [...]

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England concerning whether the state of New Hampshire can require parental notification before a physician can perform an abortion on a minor. The two exceptions to the notification requirement of the New Hampshire Parental Notification Prior to Abortion [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Haradin Bala to 13 years in prison Wednesday for torture, cruel treatment and murder at a prison camp run by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Bala, a commander and guard at the Lapusnik prison camp, is the first Kosovo Albanian to be found guilty for war [...]

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser has accused the Australian government of pursuing laws that would reverse "centuries of advances" in human rights and the protection of individual liberties against state power. Fraser, who has previously spoken out against tough new anti-terror proposals now going through the Australian parliament, delivered his broadside attack in a [...]

UK rights group Liberty has threatened to take legal action against the British government and senior police officers unless they agree to investigate allegations that the US Central Intelligence Agency has operated "torture flights" that have landed in the UK. In recent months, reports have surfaced that CIA flights carrying terror detainees have landed in [...]

US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's responses to the US Senate Judiciary Committee nomination questionnaire, released November 30, 2005. Read the full text of the answered questionnaire .

Bangladesh police on Wednesday detained 22 suspects in the latest round of suicide bombings outside courthouses around the country. Nine people died and over 65 were wounded when two bombs detonated Tuesday, in what police and lawyers call a campaign by Islamic militants to press the judiciary into introducing Islamic Sharia law . Two judges [...]