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Singapore arrests British writer for defamation
International |
2010/07/19 07:17
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Singapore has arrested a British author as part of a criminal defamation investigation related to his book on the city-state's death penalty policy, police said Monday.
Alan Shadrake, 75, was in Singapore to promote the book and was arrested Sunday, police said in a statement.
He hosted an event Saturday promoting "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock."
Police said they arrested Shadrake based on a complaint by the government's Media Development Authority and were investigating him for other offenses. They declined to give details.
The attorney-general's office is also seeking contempt of court charges against Shadrake because statements in the book allegedly impugn the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judiciary, a spokeswoman said. She spoke anonymously in line with the attorney-general's office policy. |
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NH lawyer out $240,000 in scam targeting attorneys
Legal Business |
2010/07/19 03:17
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A New Hampshire lawyer is out $240,000 after falling prey to an international Internet scam, prosecutors said.
The attorney general's office declined to identify the lawyer but said he is one of two lawyers in the state who were targeted in recent weeks by scam artists who used Internet messages, fake companies and counterfeit checks to "retain" them.
The checks were said to be settlement money or retainer fees, and the lawyers were instructed to wire money to a different party in the case.
Prosecutors say one lawyer investigated further and learned the check was counterfeit and that the scam artists had used fraudulent stationary to pretend to be the opposing counsel who sent the check. He did not wire the money as instructed, but instead alerted the attorney general's Office and state banking officials.
The second lawyer deposited the check and wired half the amount — $240,000 — to a so-called client of the company that retained him, prosecutors said. He soon learned the check was bogus and his account was drained of cash. Because the lawyer was the one who deposited the check in his account, he suffers the loss. |
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Appeals court sides with Iranian dissident group
International |
2010/07/19 02:14
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An Iranian opposition group has won a round in its long legal fight to get the State Department to stop classifying it as a terrorist organization.
A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the State Department to reconsider its decision to keep the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The designation prohibits groups from raising money and obtaining other support in the United States.
The court said the U.S. government must give the Iraq-based group a chance to respond to claims that it continues to engage in terrorist activity or at least retains the capability and intent to do so. The government also maintains a file of secret information that it says supports the continuing terrorist designation. Friday's ruling did not address the classified material.
The People's Mujahedeen has argued that it stopped military operations against the Iranian regime and renounced violence in 2001, and handed over its weapons to U.S.-led forces after the ouster of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003.
The European Union dropped the People's Mujahedeen from its list of banned terrorist groups last year. |
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Man with neo-Nazi ties leading patrols in AZ
Political and Legal |
2010/07/19 01:18
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Minutemen groups, a surge in Border Patrol agents, and a tough new immigration law aren't enough for a reputed neo-Nazi who's now leading a militia in the Arizona desert.
Jason "J.T." Ready is taking matters into his own hands, declaring war on "narco-terrorists" and keeping an eye out for illegal immigrants. So far, he says his patrols have only found a few border crossers who were given water and handed over to the Border Patrol. Once, they also found a decaying body in a wash, and alerted authorities.
But local law enforcement are nervous given that Ready's group is heavily armed and identifies with the National Socialist Movement, an organization that believes only non-Jewish, white heterosexuals should be American citizens and that everyone who isn't white should leave the country "peacefully or by force."
"We're not going to sit around and wait for the government anymore," Ready said. "This is what our founding fathers did."
An escalation of civilian border watches have taken root in Arizona in recent years, including the Minutemen movement. Various groups patrol the desert on foot, horseback and in airplanes and report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol, and generally, they have not caused problems for law enforcement.
But Ready, a 37-year-old ex-Marine, is different. He and his friends are outfitted with military fatigues, body armor and gas masks, and carry assault rifles. Ready takes offense at the term "neo-Nazi," but admits he identifies with the National Socialist Movement. |
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$20 billion oil fund to begin payments in August
Legal Business |
2010/07/16 09:40
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The $20 billion that BP has set aside to pay for losses caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will start making payments in early August. Ken Feinberg, who is in charge of paying individuals and businesses for lost income, told a meeting of government officials in Louisiana on Thursday that he expected a seamless transition from BP management to his administration. "My goal is to improve that system," Feinberg said. "I'm determined to come up with a system that is more beneficial to the people using it." BP currently has 35 offices in the Gulf Coast area accepting claims. The oil company will turn the entire operation over to Feinberg and not be involved in any of the claims against the $20 billion fund, except to supply more money if it's needed, Feinberg said. The offices will be open for three years, and claims can be filed at any time, he said. Once filed, they must be paid within 90 days, Feinberg said. The fund has not been tapped yet, but Feinberg said by the end of the first week of August his group would be ready to make payments. There are still some issues to settle, Feinberg said. One of them is how much transparency the fund should have. Data from the program will be available, but there is still debate on providing names of people applying.
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NY lawyer gets 10-year term in terrorism case
Court Watch |
2010/07/16 09:36
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A 70-year-old civil rights lawyer was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison in a terrorism case by a judge who boosted her original sentence by nearly eight years after concluding she lied to a jury and lacked remorse. "I'm somewhat stunned," Lynne Stewart told U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl after he announced the sentence for her conviction for letting a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his radical followers despite restrictions in place to prevent it. The sentence, nearly four times longer than the two-year, four-month sentence she originally received in 2006, left Stewart sobbing in her prison uniform after Koeltl described his reasons for increasing the prison time significantly. An appeals court had ordered a new sentencing, saying the terrorism component of the case needed to be considered, along with whether she committed perjury at her trial. The court said it had "serious doubts" whether her original sentence was reasonable. The judge said public comments Stewart made after her first sentencing showed him that the "original sentence was not sufficient." He said she showed "a lack of remorse for conduct that was both illegal and potentially lethal." Outside court after her original sentence, Stewart said she could do the prison time standing on her head. Koeltl found that Stewart "willfully testified falsely at the trial" on numerous points, including in telling jurors she did not make Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman available to his followers and did not violate government rules meant to silence the sheik because lawyers worked in a "bubble" in which the government understood the rules were relaxed.
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Former Kansas athletics official pleads guilty
Breaking Legal News |
2010/07/16 04:37
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A former University of Kansas athletics official has admitted in court that he knew other school officials were involved in a lucrative ticket-scalping racket but concealed the crime and didn't alert authorities. Former assistant director of ticket operations Jason Jeffries pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Wichita to one count of misprision of a felony. He remains free on his own recognizance and was due back in court for sentencing Sept. 29. The university has accused Jeffries and five other former employees of scheming to sell at least $1 million in basketball and football tickets to brokers. Jeffries' attorney said outside the courtroom that Jeffries has accepted his responsibility and has nothing to hide.
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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