A Chilean appeals court Wednesday upheld a $5 million asset freeze of former president Augusto Pinochet . A bid by Pinochet's lawyers to have the judge, Sergio Munoz, removed because of bias was also rejected. Pinochet is currently being investigated for tax evasion and misappropriation of public funds after a 2004 US Senate report exposed [...]

According to a rankings released Wednesday, the top 50 US law firms achieved double-digit growth in turnover and profits in 2004. The rankings, performed by Legal Week magazine , show that these firms have pulled in $33 billion in fees with average partner profits topping $1.2 million. The Legal Week report showed that the best-performing [...]

Italy on Wednesday became the first major European Union nation to ratify the proposed European constitution when the Italian Senate overwhelmingly approved it by a vote of 217-16. Italy's lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies , had previously approved the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe in January. Italy joins Lithuania, Hungary, and [...]

The US Senate voted Wednesday to cut the current US share of funding UN peacekeeping forces, rejecting a Democratic proposal to maintain current funding for the next two years 40-57 . The amendment to a Department of State appropriations bill would reduce the US share to 25%, down from 27.1%. Supporters argue that the decrease [...]

In a letter released Wednesday, the Judicial Conference of the United States formally requested congressional and presidential assistance in providing additional security measures. As a result of violence toward federal judges and their families in recent months and the emotional Terri Schiavo case which bred threats against members of the bench, the letter stated that [...]

Stephen Johnson , President Bush's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency , faced some tough questioning Wednesday at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee . Johnson, a 24-year veteran of the EPA and currently its Acting Administrator, took criticism from several Democratic committee members of the committee over several [...]

A French appeals court Wednesday upheld a lower court decision absolving former Yahoo! CEO Tim Koogle of criminal responsibility for auctions of Nazi paraphernalia held through Yahoo's website. Yahoo was found liable in 2000 for allowing Nazi collectibles to be sold on its auction pages in violation of a French law barring the display or [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia agreed Wednesday to allow Serbian General Sreten Lukic 30 days to enter his plea on war crimes charges so that he can undergo a medical exam following heart surgery last week. Lukic arrived at ICTY Monday to face charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the [...]

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 [...]