The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill passed final reading in the UK House of Commons Monday in a 301-229 vote. The bill will now go to the House of Lords , where it faced strong opposition when first introduced in 2002. If passed, the law will criminalize written or public verbal comments "that are threatening, [...]

Royal Dutch/Shell Group announced Tuesday that it has settled a civil suit brought by employees in response to the company's overstatement of reserves for $90 million. The plaintiff employees were part of a retirement savings plan and filed suit under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 . Shell had previously settled civil investigations [...]

Draft resolution proposal to expand the UN Security Council, United Nations General Assembly, July 11, 2005 . Read the full text of the draft resolution here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US District Judge T.S. Ellis Monday denied a motion by US-based security firm Custer Battles to invoke the False Claims Act to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two former employees alleging that the Rhode Island security firm defrauded the US government of millions under its contract to guard Baghdad Airport . Ellis did, however, eliminate [...]

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has announced a criminal investigation of former UN Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan . According to a New York Sun report, Sevan is being investigated in connection with allegations of commercial bribery related to his role as executive director of the UN Oil-for-Food Program for Iraq from 1997-2003. Last week, the [...]

A former Yugoslav army general testifying Monday on behalf of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic denied that the former leader and Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, and suggested it did not even take place. Bozidar Delic, army commander during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, rejected reports that estimate nearly 8000 Muslims were [...]

Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, Sprint has said it will buy its affiliate and litigant, US Unwired . In a press release, Sprint said it will purchase its Louisiana-based distributor for $1.3 billion and US Unwired will cease all pending legal action against Sprint. US Unwired had recently filed suit against Sprint in [...]

Leading Monday's states brief, the Illinois Supreme Court has denied the request of the Associated Press and two newspapers for access to transcripts of a pre-trial hearing involving a state murder charge arising out of the drowning deaths of three children. The crganizations argued unsuccessfully that a lower court judge had not met the standards [...]

US Justice Department antitrust regulators have asked for more information about a $3.4 billion stock bid by Adobe Systems Inc. to buy Macromedia Inc. . The DOJ wants to know more about the competitive landscape for multimedia content tools . Adobe makes popular document editing software such as Photoshop, Pagemaker, and Acrobat. Macromedia is perhaps [...]

US District Judge Denise Cote gave preliminary approval Monday to a civil settlement that would have convicted former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers forfeit as much as $45 million in personal assests in order to avoid paying restitution. Ebbers still faces criminal sentencing for his conviction on Wednesday; a lengthy prison term is expected. AP has [...]