Responding to the decision of the Supreme Court in relation to the Cadder case, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "I note today's decision by the Supreme Court. It is a decision we did not seek but it is one to which we must respond.

"The decision overturns decades of criminal procedure in Scotland, a proud, distinctive, justice system, developed over centuries, and predicated on fairness with many rigorous protections for accused persons.  It is rightly admired by other jurisdictions. This issue is about legal advice at one step in the investigatory process.

"Today's judgement in the Supreme Court has gone against the unanimous decision last October by seven Scottish High Court judges at the Scottish Appeal Court that determined that an aspect of Scottish criminal procedure does not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Britain's Supreme Court Wednesday ruled in favor of a German heiress seeking to protect her considerable fortune from her ex-husband — a decision that gives new strength to prenuptial agreements in England.

The ruling marks a potential turning point in the legal battle over prenuptial agreements in England, where courts have generally refused to recognize them as valid, binding agreements.

Nicholas Phillips, the president of the Supreme Court, said the judges decided by an 8-1 margin to let stand an earlier Appeals Court ruling that the prenuptial agreement in this case was fair and should be applied.

It is a victory for Katrin Radmacher, 40, a paper industry heiress with a fortune of at least 55 million pounds ($86.5 million), and a defeat for her ex-husband, Nicolas Granatino, 39, a former investment banker who had been seeking a greater share of her wealth than had been spelled out in their pre-nup.

The case was complex: Radmacher is German, her ex-husband is French, but they married, lived and divorced in England. The prenuptial agreement was signed at Radmacher's father's insistence in Germany, and would have been recognized in both France and Germany, where pre-nups are commonly upheld.

An appeals panel at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday rejected former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba's bid to have rape, murder and pillage charges against him dismissed.

Bemba is accused of commanding a militia responsible for atrocities in the neighboring Central African Republic in 2002-2003. He argued the charges were inadmissible because authorities in the Central African Republic had investigated the allegations and decided not to prosecute him.

The International Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, is a court of last resort. It cannot prosecute suspects if legal authorities in their home country already have convicted them or investigated and decided not to file charges.

However, appeals judge Anita Usacka rejected Bemba's arguments, saying the Central African Republic's highest court overturned a 2004 decision to dismiss charges against Bemba and correctly referred the case to the International Criminal Court.

"The appeals chamber confirms the impugned decision and dismisses the appeal," said Usacka, who is from Latvia.

Ex-trader Jerome Kerviel was convicted on all counts Tuesday in history's biggest rogue trading scandal, sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to pay his former employer a mind-numbing euro4.9 billion ($6.7 billion) in damages.

The ruling marked a huge victory for Societe Generale SA, one of France's most blue-blooded banks, which has worked to clean up its image and put in place tougher risk controls since the scandal broke in 2008.

The 33-year-old former futures index trader stood expressionless as the court convicted him and pronounced a five-year sentence with two years suspended. Kerviel was found guilty on charges of forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use for covering up bets worth nearly euro50 billion between late 2007 and early 2008.

In the most stunning blow, the court ordered Kerviel to pay the bank back the euro4.9 billion that it lost unwinding his complex positions in January 2008 -- a punishment he would almost certainly be unable to pay. He was also banned for life from working in the financial industry.

A juvenile court on Monday refused to grant bail to an American teenager charged with murder after his mother was found dead at a resort in western India, a prosecutor said.

The court sided with police who argued 16-year-old Joncarlo Patton should not be set free given the seriousness of the alleged offense, said prosecutor N.K. Sankhala.

Patton was arrested at an airport on Aug. 13, a day after his mother, Cindy Iannarelli from Cecil, Pennsylvania, was found with her throat slit at a resort in the town of Osian in Rajasthan state.

Police have formally charged the teenager with murder and destruction of evidence. Patton denies the charges.

Patton's father, University of Pittsburgh business associate professor G. Richard Patton, who arrived in India over the weekend, attended Monday's court proceedings in Jodhpur, a tourist hub in Rajasthan. The judge granted Patton's request to meet his son in the juvenile home.

Sankhala said pretrial proceedings against Patton would be held Oct.11.

An Israeli court has rejected an Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate's appeal against her deportation orders over entering Israel while being banned from the country.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire was detained at an airport lockup earlier this week for violating the conditions of her ban imposed in June, when she tried to reach Gaza aboard a blockade-busting ship.

At the time, Maguire was told she couldn't return for 10 years except with special approval.

The district court rejected her appeal Friday but gave her 48 hours to allow time for a Supreme Court appeal.

The 66-year-old Maguire is an outspoken champion of Palestinian statehood. Israel has banned other pro-Palestinian activists from entering, including Jewish-American linguist Noam Chomsky in May.