The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would block the withholding of food and water from patients in a persistent vegetative state when the patient did not leave specific instructions refusing artificial feeding. The bill is designed to prevent the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, which is scheduled to take place [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, Martha Stewart was back in court today to press her appeal to have her conviction overturned. Stewart attorney Walter Dellinger argued her conviction should be reversed because of the trial court's failure to take perjury charges against a government ink expert Larry Stewart into account. The three judge [...]

Former Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland Thursday asked federal Judge Peter C. Dorsey for leniency when sentencing him on a federal corruptions. Rowland is charged with trading political access for trips to Las Vegas, Vermont, and repairs to his cottage totalling more than $100,000; he accepted a plea agreement with prosecutors in December. In the [...]

Reuters is reporting that US authorities have indicted an ex-employee of Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root for defrauding the government of $3.5 million. 2:32 PM ET – An Illinois grand jury has laid charges against former KBR employee Jeff Alex Mazon as well as Ali Hijazi, who was the managing partner for a Kuwaiti [...]

China Thursday announced a political prisoner's release in an apparent exchange for the US dropping its pursuit of a UN censure of China's rights record. Rebiya Kadeer was released Thursday on medical parole and left for the US for treatment, according to a statement by the US-based Dui Hua Foundation . Kadeer was convicted of [...]

Afghanistan parliamentary elections originally slated for May will be held in September, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday. Karzai's announcement only confirmed the delay, which had been anticipated by observers for some time as the country struggled to prepare for the elections. Karzai said the delay was caused by technical problems, including an incomplete national [...]

A group of class-action suits against cell phone manufacturers has been revived after the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the cases Wednesday. The five suits claim the cell phone industry has failed to adequately protect users from radiation emitted by the phones and seeks to require the provision of headsets with phones, as [...]

Former Bosnian Serb interior minister Mica Stanisic pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, torture and deportation on Thursday to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague. Stanisic faces seven counts of crimes against humanity and three violations of the laws of war stemming from crimes that were allegedly committed as [...]

The number of reports of detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan dropped sharply after a series of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were publicly revealed, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The most current US Army figures on abuse reports show that the number made against US soldiers dropped by more than 75 percent [...]

In Thursday's international brief, Nigeria , acting on behalf of the African Union , has proposed the creation of an African war crimes tribunal that would prosecute alleged human rights violations and war crimes in Sudan . The proposal was directed to the European Union , whose members have traditionally favored sending the Sudan situation [...]