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Mexico criticizes Colombia's Ecuador raid
Legal World News |
2008/03/05 11:34
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SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday added his voice to regional condemnation of Colombia's military strike on rebels inside Ecuador, and called on the two countries to resolve the problem peacefully. "We coincide in the rejection of any action that constitutes a violation of territorial sovereignty," Calderon said after a meeting with Salvadoran President Tony Saca in which the two leaders discussed the crisis. Colombia bombed neighboring Ecuador's territory on Saturday to kill a senior leftist FARC guerrilla, leading Ecuador's ally Venezuela to warn that war could break out in the region. Both Ecuador and Venezuela have mobilized troops. Mexico's criticism of Colombia came after Brazil condemned the bomb attack on Monday and called on Bogota to offer an explicit apology. Nicaragua has also condemned Colombia's killing of the rebel commander, and former Cuban President Fidel Castro called the incident a "monstrous crime." Calderon said Mexico would try to help Colombia and Ecuador resolve the crisis. "We will spare no effort so that the Colombian and Ecuadorean governments normalize relations as soon as possible through dialogue and diplomatic channels," Calderon said. Calderon may meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at a regional summit being held in the Dominican Republic on Thursday and Friday, Mexican state news agency Notimex reported. Dominican government sources have said both Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa might attend the summit. |
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Death for Pakistani for murder of U.S. diplomat
Legal World News |
2008/03/05 09:41
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A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced an al Qaeda-linked militant to death on Wednesday for a 2006 suicide attack in Karachi that killed a U.S. diplomat, a government lawyer said.
The blast on March 2, 2006 near the gates of the U.S. consulate killed U.S. diplomat David Foy and three other people, as well as the bomber, on the eve of a visit to Pakistan by U.S. President George W. Bush.
In an August 2006 raid in Karachi, police arrested two suspects, Anwar-ul-Haq and Usman Ghani, who police said were suspected of planning the suicide car-bomb attack.
A court sentenced Haq to death but acquitted Ghani for lack of evidence, said state prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa.
"Anwar-ul-Haq has been sentenced to three counts of life imprisonment and four counts of the death penalty besides being fined 1.5 million rupees ($24,000)," Randhawa said. "Usman Ghani got the benefit of the doubt and has been freed," he said.
At the time of their arrest, police said the two were trained militants with links to al Qaeda and had fought against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Police said the blast, which wounded 49 people, was aimed at disrupting Bush's visit to Pakistan but he went ahead with his trip to the capital, Islamabad, as scheduled.
Pakistan, an important ally in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda members and allied militants since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Pakistan does carry out death sentences, by hanging, but sentences are often overturned by higher courts after appeals. |
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Canada-U.S. lumber spat gets split court ruling
Legal World News |
2008/03/04 19:32
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The London Court of International Arbitration has issued a split ruling on Canadian softwood lumber shipments to the United States in the latest installment of the two countries' long-running trade feud. The ruling, released on Tuesday, addresses the first of two complaints the Bush administration has lodged, alleging that Canada had breached a 2006 trade deal by shipping too much lumber and exacerbating woes for struggling U.S. lumber firms. The United States accused Canada of misinterpreting the agreement to give its exporters an unfair advantage.
The ruling marked a victory for the Western Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta when the panel found against the U.S. claim that the provinces owed millions of dollars in export taxes aimed at limiting export surges. Under the deal, Canadian lumber exporters can either pay export charges of up to 15 percent based on their selling price to the United States, or cap the charge at 5 percent along with an export quota that restrains volume. British Columbia has traditionally produced about half of all the softwood that Canada exports to the United States. However, the court found that Quebec and Ontario in Canada's east, which are also big producers and use the quota option to limit their exports, had sent too much lumber south. "Under the panel decision, producers in the east of Canada will be penalized for over-shipping their allowable quota," said Zoltan van Heyningen, executive director of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, the U.S. industry group that has been driving the complaints. Canada claimed at least partial victory and said the ruling was a healthy step for the bilateral 2006 agreement, which was designed to avert more years of long, expensive lumber lawsuits. "While Canada believes that it has fully complied with the agreement, we respect the tribunal's ruling ... Today's decision provides clarity with respect to the implementation of the SLA (Softwood Lumber Agreement) in the future," said Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson. The United States had argued that the starting point for calculating export charges and volumes should be the first quarter of 2007, while Canada argued it should be July 2007. The court sided with the United States on that issue. The two countries have one month to propose possible remedies for the overshipping issue, which might entail docking future exports, Van Heyningen said. The U.S. coalition said it disagreed with the findings on the western provinces, which it said "let Canada off the hook regarding past collections of 'surge mechanism' export taxes," which they estimated at up to about $85 million. The Bush administration has filed a separate complaint at the court, alleging that certain Canadian provinces were improperly propping up their lumber industries. |
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Young lawyer appointed Romanian justice minister
Legal World News |
2008/03/01 17:10
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Catalin Predoiu, a 40-year-old lawyer, has been appointed Romania's new justice minister. His appointment ends a lengthy struggle between Romanian head of government Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and President Traian Basescu.
The EU is closely following the development of Romania's judicial system, and therefore also the filling of this post. Dan Cristian Turturica comments: "We don't know much about Catalin Predoiu, but on the basis of his biography he seems a better choice than any of the other candidates put up by the Liberal Party so far. ...
The important difference between him and his predecessor Tudor Chiuariu is that the latter was a party activist whereas Predoiu has legal experience. In theory this means he won't have to do everything the party demands of him. ... On the other hand, ministerial posts are political jobs, and for Romania it has become crucial that they are occupied by experts - even if they are technocrats - because nowadays there are hardly any political dignitaries left who have both work experience and morals." |
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Venezuela asks UK court to lift Exxon asset freeze
Legal World News |
2008/02/29 13:42
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Venezuela's state oil company has asked a British court to lift a $12 billion freeze granted to U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil pending arbitration over the seizure of oil fields in the South American country.
Lawyers for PDVSA argued on Thursday that the court had no right to impose the freeze because the assets under dispute, the parties and the arbitration that Exxon has applied for were not in or connected with Britain.
Leftist President Hugo Chavez told foreign oil companies last year to cede a majority stake in oil projects or leave the country. Most agreed and accepted bids for stakes in their projects from PDVSA that analysts said were below market value. Exxon opted to pull out rather than concede and has applied for international arbitration to win damages.
Pending the outcome, America's largest company convinced courts in Britain, the United States and the Netherlands to freeze Venezuelan assets to ensure funds for compensation.
Acting for PDVSA, lawyer Gordon Pollock told the court, "It is not the role or function of the English courts to offer worldwide freezing orders" to anyone who asked for them.
Pollock said the English court had stretched beyond its jurisdiction in this instance given such asset freezes were normally only awarded in cases involving "egregious fraud".
"This is not a fraud case ... it is a contractual dispute." In Caracas, Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Venezuela made three basic arguments against the ruling.
First, the asset freeze was outside the arbitration process, which PDVSA was following in good faith. Second, PDVSA is a state company and therefore should be immune from such freezes, he said.
Finally, he said such freezes were used against companies in financial difficulties, which was not the case for PDVSA -- a company industry analysts believe can easily pay Exxon compensation for its seized assets.
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EU Court Rules on in Vitro Dispute
Legal World News |
2008/02/26 13:50
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The European Court of Justice, clarifying an Austrian labor dispute, ruled against a Salzburg woman's claim that she had been entitled to labor protection when she was fired while pursuing in vitro fertilization. The woman argued that she was technically already pregnant when her eggs were fertilized — but not yet implanted — and hence was entitled to full pay and protection from dismissal under EU labor legislation. The fertilized eggs were implanted three days after she was dismissed from her job at a bakery in March 2005. In its ruling Tuesday, the EU court said that under such an argument, women could delay having fertilized eggs implanted for years and claim unfair dismissal by saying they are pregnant. Rather, the EU high court ruled that the Austrian court need only assess whether in vitro fertilization was considered by her employers as grounds for dismissal. European law bans gender discrimination. |
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