Nilo Jerez, a former political prisoner in Cuba , sued Fidel Castro and his government Thursday claiming he had been rendered sterile after having been repeatedly tortured with drugs and electric shocks in the early 1970s. Jerez stated that he still suffers from "distress, anxiety, fear and apprehension" as a result of the treatment, said [...]

Leading Thursday's environmental law news, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by 8 states against four private energy companies and the federal Tennessee Valley Authority which claimed they contributed to global warming. US District Judge Loretta Preska ruled that the states wanted the judiciary to make environmental policies that would affect the economy, [...]

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and State Insurance Superintendent Howard Mills Thursday said that eight former senior executives of Marsh & McLennan had been indicted for bids given "under false pretenses." Spitzer said bid rigging carried out from November 1998 to September 2004 cost customers of the US's largest insurance brokarage company millions of [...]

Leading Thursday's states brief, the Massachusetts state legislature today overrode Governor Mitt Romney's veto of a bill which requiring emergency room doctors to offer emergency contraception to rape victims. Romney said he would not sign the bill because doing so would violate his campaign pledge not to change the state's abortion laws. Romney was concerned [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Thursday for collective international action to defeat terrorism as he addressed world leaders at the ongoing 2005 World Summit on UN reform . Putin urged the adoption of "constructive" UN reforms that would "unite, not separate" and insisted that the UN must play a central role in the fight against [...]

Chile's Supreme Court Thursday upheld the acquittal of former dictator Augusto Pinochet on charges that he ordered political abductions and murders as part of "Operation Condor" , a conspiracy between South American dictators during the 1970s to eliminate political opponents and dispose of the bodies in different countries. The high court decision comes just one [...]

Uzbekistan deputy state prosecutor Anvar Nabiyev on Thursday named 15 men who will stand trial next week for trying to overthrow the Uzbek government. The men, who allegedly organized disturbances in the town of Andijan in May 2005, face charges including shooting hostages, forcing civilians to take part in an anti-government protest and membership in [...]

US Chief Justice nominee John Roberts finished his fourth and final day of confirmation testimony Thursday morning by declaring "I am not an ideologue," adding that ideologues do not belong on the court. Though Roberts' views were again challenged by Democrats, it appears increasingly likely that he will be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee [...]

The US Senate has approved the creation of a new US Department of Justice office that would investigate racially motivated homicides that took place prior to 1970. The Unsolved Crimes Section was proposed in reaction to numerous cases that remain unsolved due to weak state and federal prosecution at the time they occurred, including the [...]

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal have said that the state will not file an immediate appeal to the US Supreme Court challenging a decision that allows the Base Closure and Realignment Commission to prepare Bradley Air National Guard Base for realignment. State officials have decided instead to make their case [...]