Uzbek courts sentence 42 more for Andijan uprising News
Uzbek courts sentence 42 more for Andijan uprising

[JURIST] Courts in Uzbekistan [JURIST news archive] Wednesday convicted an additional 42 people and handed down prison sentences of 12-20 years in connection with the May 2005 Andijan uprising [HRW backgrounder]. It was reported that the defendants were convicted on charges including participation in terrorist acts and deliberate, aggravated murder, though there has not been an official court confirmation. In May, thousands of protesters gathered after rebels stormed a prison [JURIST report] and freed a group of businessmen on trial for alleged Islamic extremism. Rights groups have alleged that over 500 protestors were killed [JURIST report] as the government struggled to end the demonstrations, though Uzbek officials say there only 187 who died. Wednesday's convictions are the latest in a series of trials against those participating in the uprising and last week, the Uzbek Supreme Court announced that 38 policemen and soldiers also face charges [JURIST report] of failing to prevent attacks on government sites. AP has more.

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THIS DAY @ LAW

First US life insurance company incorporated

On January 11, 1759, America's first life insurance company was incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers was established by Presbyterians to support the families of their ministers. In 1988, the company's name was changed to the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund. The company later became Covenant Life Insurance Company before being acquired by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in 2002. Read a history of the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund from the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

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On January 11, 1943, the United States and Great Britain relinquished by treaty their extraterritorial claims in China. This abandonment effectively ended the jurisdiction of the extraterritorial United States Court for China (established 1906) and the British Supreme Court in China. Read more about the United States Court for China, which one scholar has called "probably the strangest federal tribunal ever constituted by Congress," in a short online history of the US Ninth Circuit.