Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, the SEC has approved the extenstion of the "trade-through" rule to electronic exchanges which will subject the vast majority of stock transactions to guidelines designed to give investors the best stock price. Chairman William Donaldson cast the deciding vote in a rule widely opposed by companies including Nasdaq [...]

US District Judge James Moody sentenced white supremacist Matthew Hale to 40 years in prison for soliciting an undercover FBI informant to murder US District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow . In an earlier, trademark infringement suit, Lefkow had ordered Hale's group to stop using the name World Church of the Creator, which was already taken [...]

Hong Kong's Acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang said Wednesday that it is "accurate and necessary" to ask China's National People's Congress to interpret Hong Kong's Basic Law in order to settle a constitutional dispute over the term length of Hong Kong's next chief executive. After Tung Chee-hwa resigned as chief executive last month, Beijing decided [...]

A German court Wednesday found Tunisian national Ihsan Garnaoui not guilty of charges of founding a terrorist organization and planning bomb attacks against American and Jewish targets in Germany. Garnaoui went on trial last May on allegations that he trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and was returned to Germany with instructions to bomb [...]

The Vatican announced Wednesday that the College of Cardinals has set April 18 as the beginning of its secret conclave to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II, who died Saturday . The conclave will begin that afternoon, and according to the governing apostolic constitution on papal succession , one ballot will be held [...]

The National Human Rights Commission of South Korea issued a non-binding recommendation Wednesday that the country's death penalty be abolished. Eight of the nine officials on the Commission approved the resolution, which will be forwarded to the National Assembly . The Legislation & Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly is currently considering an abolition bill [...]

Morgan Tsvangirai , president of the Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change , announced Wednesday that the MDC had proof of "serious and unaccountable gaps" between the totals of reported votes and tallied votes in one quarter of the 120 open seats at stake in last week's Zimbabwe parliamentary elections. MDC officials said that [...]

The Florida Legislature passed a new bill through both houses Tuesday giving citizens the right to use firearms to defend themselves at home or in public places if they "reasonably believe[] it is necessary to do so, to prevent death or great bodily harm" to themselves or others. The stated intent of the bill, strongly [...]

Kevin Martin , the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission , called on members of the cable TV industry Tuesday to find ways to help parents regulate indecent content. Martin spoke at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association annual meeting, advocating for increased involvement of the cable TV industry in allowing parents to keep [...]

The Kyrgyz Supreme Court Wednesday annuled a 2001 guilty verdict for criminal abuse of power against Felix Kulov , the leader of the Ar-Namys opposition group who was freed from prison during the March 24 protests in Kyrgyzstan which prompted the flight and resignation of President Askar Akayev. Kulov will appear before the Supreme Court [...]