Proponents of a ballot initiative backed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that would change the way political districts are drawn in California have lodged an appeal with the state Supreme Court asking that the issue be reinstated for the upcoming vote. Proposition 77 , if approved by voters, would give a panel of retired judges the [...]

AP is reporting that former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the company's $11 billion accounting fraud, the largest in US history. Sullivan is the fifth former executive from WorldCom to receive a prison sentence. In July, former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers received a 25-year [...]

Taysir Hayb, a former Israeli soldier, was sentenced Thursday to 8 years in prison following his manslaughter conviction by a military tribunal for the shooting of Tom Hurndall , a British peace activist . The case is the first time an Israeli soldier was found guilty of killing a foreign citizen. Hurndall was killed while [...]

Under new antiterrorism measures announced last week by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, UK police Thursday detained 10 foreigners, from countries including Jordan, Lebanon, and Algeria, who have been deemed to pose a security threat and scheduled them for deportation. The controversial policy of deporting those preaching violence or hatred or posing a threat to [...]

Iraqi leaders continued to work on hammering out the final details of their new Constitution Thursday, with a Monday deadline looming over the talks. Debates over federalism and the role of a centralized government are still a key stumbling block, although it's unclear if this clash will result in a delay in the process. Some [...]

Diplomats at an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency are working Thursday on a resolution that expresses "serious concern" over the restart of Iran's nuclear program , but stops short of asking the UN Security Council to impose sanctions. Instead, the IAEA draft states a desire to resolve the matter through negotiation. Iran's [...]

The Republican National Committee has spent over $722,000 on lawyers from the highly-regarded Washington firm Williams & Connolly to defend James Tobin on vote tampering charges, an RNC spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. Tobin, President Bush's 2004 campaign chairman for New England, faces four felony charges that he conspired to jam phone lines and block Democratic voting [...]

New documents on the legal career of US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts are expected to be released Thursday by the National Archives and the Ronald Reagan presidential library, but Senate Democrats are continuing calls for even more material to be made available for scrutiny in advance of Roberts' confirmation hearing next month. At issue [...]

Omar Bakri Mohammed, the British cleric who fled to Lebanon after being named in an investigation into possible treason charges for allegedly praising the London bombings, was detained by Lebanese police Thursday. Bakri, who has dual Lebanese-Syrian citizenship, arrived in the country on Saturday, shortly after the British government announced plans to deport and exclude [...]

Leading Wednesday's corporation and securities law news, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has suspended controversial corporate governance rules for mutual funds promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The suspension will last until a lawsuit brought by the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups challenging the new rules [...]