Andrew Wood : "Exactly one year ago I was in the southeastern Sri Lankan village of Kirinda wrapping up a three month stint of relief work following the Asian tsunami. Now, as I reflect from New Orleans in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina, I cannot help but compare the two situations. Though two completely [...]

US Interior Secretary Gale Norton resigned from the Bush cabinet Friday after a five-year run, and will officially leave office at the end of March. In her resignation letter , the former Colorado Attorney General told the President that her decision was motivated by a desire to return home to Denver. While notorious in some [...]

A federal jury has found private military contractor Custer Battles guilty of 37 fraudulent acts against the US Coalition Provisional Authority in the first application of the federal False Claims Act against an Iraq war contractor. The jury found the company guilty of establishing shell companies, forging invoices, inflating charges, and stealing equipment in an [...]

Both the UN and Cambodia have submitted "short lists" of possible judges for the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal that will be probing crimes against humanity by the Cambodian communist regime that allegedly killed millions in the 1970s and 80s. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday sent Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen a list of 12 [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague Friday convicted two Croatians – a journalist and a former security official – for contempt in disclosing the name of a protected witnesses in the 1997 war crimes trial of Croatian Army general Tihomir Blaskic . The identity and testimony of Johannes van Kuijk, [...]

Zimbabwean police have arrested 15 members of the opposition group Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after reportedly uncovering a collection of stockpiled weapons connected to the clandestine Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM) , a group established in 2003 for the sole purpose of overthrowing the regime of President Robert Mugabe . The 15 suspects are being [...]

China has established a Judicial Court of Intellectual Property to handle piracy and intellectual property cases nationwide, according to a court spokesman speaking Friday at a Beijing news conference held during the annual meeting of the parliamentary National People's Congress. Read a press release on the court .The announcement comes amidst continuing complaints from other [...]

New legislation aimed at improving security at American ports remained very much on the policy agenda of Republican and Democratic lawmakers Friday even in the wake of an announcement from United Arab Emirates-owned Dubai Ports World , read out by Sen. John Warner on the Senate floor Thursday, that it would transfer its newly-acquired operating [...]

Prosecutors in Milan announced Friday that after an investigation they have formally asked a judge to issue an indictment against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his former lawyer, British barrister David Mills, for corruption in connection with false testimony that Mills allegedly gave at two trials in 1997 and 1998 involving Berlusconi broadcasting company [...]

Candace Stockey : "This week, I, along with our fearless leader, Elizabeth Seitz (Pitt Law 3L), and Andrew Wood (Pitt Law 1L), volunteered at New Orleans Legal Assistance (NOLAC), a non-profit legal aid center. Personally, I have focused on research for an appellate brief regarding an action to establish paternity following the alleged father's death. [...]