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High court rejects appeal in rendition case
Legal Business |
2010/06/14 08:58
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pThe Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Canadian engineer who was caught up in the U.S. government's secret transfer of terror suspects to other countries./ppThe court did not comment Monday in ending Syrian-born Maher Arar's quest to sue top U.S. officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Arar says he was mistaken for a terrorist when he was changing planes in New York on his way home to Canada, a year after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was instead sent to Syria, where he claims he was tortured./ppLower courts dismissed Arar's lawsuit, which asserts the U.S. purposely sent him to Syria to be tortured. Syria has denied he was tortured./ppThe Canadian government agreed to pay Arar $10 million and apologized to him for its role in the case./ppA Canadian investigation found that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police wrongly labeled Arar an Islamic fundamentalist and passed misleading and inaccurate information to U.S. authorities./ppThe inquiry determined that Arar was tortured, and it cleared him of any terrorist links or suspicions.
/p |
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Kagan confirmation would affect major tobacco case
Headline Topics |
2010/06/14 08:58
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| pIt's a simple matter of math: Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court has complicated the government's effort to force the tobacco industry to cough up nearly $300 billion./ppIf confirmed by the Senate as a justice, Kagan would have to sit out high court review of the government's decade-old racketeering lawsuit against cigarette makers. That's because she already has taken sides as solicitor general, signing the Obama administration's Supreme Court brief in the case — an automatic disqualifier./ppKagan is expected to step aside from 11 of the 24 cases the court has so far agreed to hear beginning in October./ppWithout her, the government and anti-tobacco advocates could find it difficult, if not impossible, to find a fifth vote to allow the government to seek $280 billion of past tobacco profits and $14 billion for a national campaign to curb smoking./p |
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Obama plans fourth tour of Gulf oil spill
Topics |
2010/06/14 05:58
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| pStruggling to show leadership in a crisis, President Barack Obama is embarking on a three-state tour of Gulf Coast states tainted by oil before speaking to the nation about the country's worst environmental disaster and what to expect in the weeks ahead./ppBefore the start Monday of a two-day trip to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, the White House announced Obama would order BP to establish a major victims' compensation fund. When he returns to Washington on Tuesday evening Obama will use his first Oval Office speech as president to address the catastrophe./ppBP said in a statement that its costs for responding to the spill had risen to $1.6 billion, including new $25 million grants to Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. It also includes the first $60 million for a project to build barrier islands off the Louisiana coast. The estimate does not include future costs for scores of damage lawsuits already filed./ppObama's first three trips to the Gulf took him to the hardest-hit state, Louisiana. On Monday, Day 56 since BP's leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and unleashed a fury of oil into the Gulf, he's flying to Gulfport, Miss. From there he'll travel along the coast to Alabama, where oil was washing up in heavy amounts along the shores Sunday in the eastern part of the state./p |
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NY appeals court tosses ruling on RNC surveillance
Legal Business |
2010/06/09 12:16
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| An appeals court has thrown out a ruling that ordered the release of documents related to NYPD surveillance of protesters at the 2004 Republican National Convention.pThe 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan found Wednesday that the district court overstepped its authority by trying to force the department to make the material public./ppMore than 1,800 people were arrested at the four-day convention at Madison Square Garden./ppThe New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of some of those detained. It claimed the arrests violated the protesters' civil rights./p |
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Woman pleads not guilty to shaking baby in '95
Court Watch News |
2010/06/08 09:27
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| pA west suburban Addison woman accused of violently shaking a 3-month-old baby pleaded not guilty nearly 15 years after she fled to avoid prosecution. /ppRosa Tellez, 43, was arrested last week in DuPage County. Police had stopped her for a traffic violation when they found she was wanted on a 1995 warrant. /ppTellez had been babysitting the infant, who was found with brain injuries. /ppInvestigators say Tellez left a note behind saying she was leaving the country for Mexico. The baby involved survived and is now 15 years old and living out of state. /p |
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Detroit hit man pleads guilty to 8 murders
Headline Topics |
2010/06/08 09:24
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| A self-described hit man who once told police I kill people for money pleaded guilty Monday to eight murders, including the contract killing of a Detroit police officer's wife.pVincent Smothers pleaded guilty to eight counts of second-degree murder and a gun charge in exchange for a minimum sentence of 52 years in prison. With credit for time served since his arrest, he could be freed when he's about 80 years old./ppSmothers, 29, shocked police two years ago when he confessed to the eight Detroit slayings during around-the-clock interrogations. He told investigators his hits were all related to the drug trade except for the final one, the killing of Rose Cobb on the day after Christmas in 2007./ppHe's just glad there's closure for everybody, defense attorney Gabi Silver told The Associated Press after the hearing in Wayne County Circuit Court, where jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday for the Cobb slaying./p |
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Teen pleads guilty in Pa. officer's traffic death
Headline Court News |
2010/06/07 09:24
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| A Philadelphia teenager has pleaded guilty in the death of a police officer whose cruiser he struck with a stolen SUV in 2008.pEighteen-year-old Andre Butler pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and other charges on Monday, the day his trial was scheduled to begin./ppPolice say Butler, then 16, was behind the wheel of a stolen Cadillac Escalade and leading police on a high-speed chase in September 2008 when the SUV crashed into a police car./ppForty-year-old Officer Isabel Nazario, who was in the cruiser's passenger seat, was killed instantly. Her partner was seriously injured./p |
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