Lawyers for Mikhail Khodorkovsky , the former CEO of Yukos , concluded their defense of the oil magnate Friday before the three judge panel that has heard the trial for the past 10 months. Khodorkovsky , once Russia's richest man, has been fending off charges of fraud, embezzlement, and tax evasion, arguing that the case [...]

Lawyers for "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla have asked the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of Padilla's indefinite military detention. The Supreme Court considered Padilla's case last year, but dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds , saying the lawsuit was improperly filed in New York. Padilla refiled his lawsuit in South Carolina, and [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Friday unsealed the war crimes charges against former Bosnian Serb army captain Milorad Trbic. Trbic is charged with crimes against humanity on the same indictment as former Bosnian Serb general Vinko Pandurevic , who surrendered to the ICTY in late March. The ICTY prosecutor alleges that Pandurevic, [...]

In his first interview since being named Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani said Friday that the country's new constitution will be drafted by August 15, meeting the deadline stipulated in the Transitional Administrative Law . There had been speculation that the draft could be delayed up to six months due to the National Assembly's difficulty in [...]

In a letter sent to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Thursday, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, slammed the Defense Department's proposed changes to the guidelines concerning the detention of enemy combatants for violating protections outlined in the Geneva Conventions. The Joint Doctrine for Detainee Operations extends the enemy combatant status normally reserved [...]

While in Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, House Republican leader Tom DeLay has expressed his continued disappointment with federal judges, saying they have "run amok". Speaking by videotape Thursday to attendees at the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration's Confronting the Judical War on Faith conference, DeLay said that "unelected, and all [...]

Leading Friday's international brief, opposition members in Togo clashed with police on the first day of political campaigning for the national elections required by the resignation of Faure Gnassingbe . Protesters blocked off several streets with barricades of burning tires and were dispersed by the police firing tear gas into the crowd. Faure's agreement to [...]

The Justice Department announced late Thursday that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will not oversee the Enron criminal proceedings . While no reason was given for the decision, Gonzales did legal work for Enron in the early 1990s, and accepted a $6,000 campaign contribution from an Enron political committee. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft also [...]

In Friday's environmental law news, CSX Transportation Inc. and the federal government have refused a proposal by US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to help settle a dispute with Washington DC officials over the city's plan to ban railroad shipments of hazardous cargo. The ban, passed by the DC Council and signed by Mayor Anthony [...]

The New York Times reported Friday that documents for a transaction at the center of a wide-ranging probe into American International Group Inc. were doctored two months after the deal was made. The deal was reportedly "repapered" by mid-level employees of General Re , a unit of Berkshire Hathaway . Lawyers for Berkshire Hathaway discovered [...]