US military judge Lieutenant Colonel Richard Anderson sentenced National Guard soldier Dustin Berg to 18 months in prison late Monday after he pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in the deadly shooting of an Iraqi police officer. Berg initially said the Iraqi police officer had pointed an gun at him to prevent Berg from reporting insurgent [...]

Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of American v. U.S. Dep't of Agriculture, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, July 25, 2005 . Excerpt: Plaintiff-Appellee, Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America ("R-CALF"), successfully blocked the implementation of the Final Rule, convincing the court below to find the rule [...]

The White House reiterated Monday that extensive requests by Democrats for legal writings produced by Supreme Court Justice nominee John Roberts would be met with opposition. During a White House press briefing, Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters that although the Senate Judiciary Committee has not made a request for any specific documents, the administration [...]

Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, Fidelity Investments has announced that it may face civil charges from the SEC. In a press release, Fidelity said that it received a Wells Notice that the SEC may file a lawsuit related to Fidelity's employees accepting gifts from Wall Street brokerage firms. A Wells Notice is a [...]

Leading Monday's states brief, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich today signed the Safe Games Illinois Act , which bans the rental and sale of violent and sexually explicit games to those younger than 18 years of age. The legislation, passed in May, also requires retailers to label violent and sexually explicit games and to post signs [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit released an opinion Monday explaining its July 14 reversal of a ban on importing Canadian cattle enacted two years ago after Canada discovered its first domestic case of mad cow disease . The court found that Montana District Court Judge Richard Cebull's March ruling barring the [...]

The government of Rwanda announced Monday that it would release up to 30,000 prisoners suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide and other war crimes on a provisional basis. According to the Prosecutor General, those to be released are mostly the elderly, those under 18 at the time of the genocide, and those who have [...]

An Iranian court ruled on Monday that it lacked jurisdiction to investigate the death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi as a premeditated murder since the original court ruled the death unintentional. Kazemi died three weeks after being arrested in July 2003 for taking pictures of a government protest outside a prison in Tehran, and the [...]

An Italian court issued arrest warrants on Monday for six more CIA operatives in connection with the kidnapping of a radical Muslim in 2003 in Milan. Last month the court issued warrants for 13 members of the unit and is considering seeking extradition . The six warrants today were issued for the remaining members of [...]

Ethiopia's National Election Board ordered revotes in 20 of the country's 524 constituencies on Monday, after an investigation of election fraud found evidence of abuse at more than 100 polling stations. Violence and protests erupted after the original election, and only recently has the government ended a ban on election protests . The new votes [...]