The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that prisoners at Camp Bucca , a US-run detention camp in southern Iraq, rioted on April 1 despite an initial US military denial of any incident. An ICRC delegation was at the camp conducting a regular prisoner visit the day of the riot. The Red [...]

In Monday's environmental law news, the California legislature is considering revisions to the 35-year-old California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The revisions are prompted by increased housing costs in the rapidly growing state. The CEQA requires a variety of environmental reviews of new development projects. Governor Schwarzenegger is pushing for trimming some environmental reviews that slow [...]

The Florida Attorney General's office has filed its first lawsuit under the state's new anti-spam law . Civil suits seeking up to $24 million in fines were filed Monday against Scott Filary, 25, and Donald Townsend, 34, who are accused of masterminding a spam operation which sent over 65,000 deceptive e-mails. Under the state law, [...]

Kansas voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. Kansas law already prohibits gay marriage but supporters claim the ban must be put into the Kansas Constitution to avoid any legal challenges. The chief argument in favor of placing the ban in the Kansas constitution [...]

Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, Fannie Mae regulator the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) , has announced it is investigating Fannie's use of trusts which it set up to sell securities. Specifically, OFHEO is determining whether the company accounted for trusts as "qualifying special purpose entities" to keep the trusts' assets [...]

Microsoft announced Monday that it will comply with EU demands and make software blueprints available to competitors and offer lower licensing fees. Last month, the EU had threatened Microsoft with new fines if it did not make it easier and cheaper for competitors to access its source code. In a March 2004 antitrust decision , [...]

Key portions of the USA PATRIOT Act which will expire at the end of this year are set to come up for review this week before the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee . The Patriot Act, which gave the executive power sweeping law enforcement and investigatory authority, has been controversial since its [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday unanimously ruled in Rousey v. Jacoway that Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) can be exempted from a bankruptcy estate, allowing bankruptcy filers to retain their IRAs rather than forcing them to divide the assets among their creditors. The Rouseys claimed an exemption but their bankruptcy trustee objected, arguing that 11 U.S.C. [...]

Sudan over the weekend formally rejected UN Security Council Resolution 1593 authorizing the International Criminal Court to conduct investigations and prosecutions of individuals alleged to have committed war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan. Sudan had previously expressed its displeasure with the resolution, claiming that it could conduct valid war crimes trials in-country. On [...]

Former Serbian police general Sreten Lukic was delivered Monday to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. It is as yet unclear whether he surrendered, or was arrested and forcibly transferred. Eyewitnesses reported seeing Lukic approached by government officials Monday after a medical check-up. Lukic has chronic heart problems and underwent [...]