Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin, Sudan's justice minister, has rejected calls for the extradition of 10 suspects to face charges for war crimes in Darfur before the the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Yassin said the men are already on trial in a Sudanese court , where they have pleaded not guilty . Rights groups [...]

The US Justice Department has officially ended its probe into Royal Dutch/Shell Group , announcing on Wednesday that it will not prosecute the company for overstating gas and oil reserves . Shell had previously settled civil investigations by both the US and UK governments, and accepted the resignation of its chief financial officer . Shell [...]

Despite being voted down in the Senate , the Spanish parliament on Thursday passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage and allowing same-sex couples to adopt and inherit each other's property. Read the text of the legislation . Spain now joins the Netherlands and Belgium as the only countries to recognize gay marriages. The Canadian House [...]

Executive Order blocking property of weapons of mass destruction proliferators and their supporters, President George W. Bush, June 29, 2005 . Read the full text of the Order. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A federal jury Wednesday convicted five East St. Louis (Illinois) Democratic Party officials on charges of felony conspiracy to commit vote fraud, and election fraud in the November 2004 election. Charles Powell Jr., the local Democratic Party chairman, and four party employees were found guilty of misappropriating $76,150 to buy votes for cash, cigarettes and [...]

The US Justice Department Wednesday called a city invocation of the Patriot Act as a defense in a suit by a homeless man an "overreaching application of the law." Summit, New Jersey cited the act in response to a lawsuit by Richard Kreimer , alleging that the it violated his and other homeless persons' constitutional [...]

Leading Wednesday's states brief, the California Supreme Court has let stand a new law granting registered domestic partners many of the same rights and protections of heterosexual marriages. Without comment, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of a California court of appeals which ruled that the law did not conflict with voter initiative Proposition 22 [...]

Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, on the day before SEC Chairman William Donaldson steps down, the Commission has voted 3-2 to keep a rule forcing mutual funds to be overseen by an independent chairman. The vote was a result of a federal appeals court ruling last week that the SEC had not adequately [...]

As anticipated , President Bush Wednesday announced the creation of a new intelligence service within the FBI, endorsing 70 of 74 recommendations presented by the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the US Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction . Bush also adopted changes that will consolidate US Justice Department counterterrorism, espionage, and intelligence units and [...]

The Russian parliament on Wednesday gave second reading approval to amendments to the country's election law that could further strengthen President Vladimir Putin's government. The proposals would ban the formation of blocs by political parties and block the use of "against all" protest votes on ballots. The changes come after Putin previously abolished gubernatorial elections [...]