|
|
|
Teen suspect in 6-year-old's death due in court
Legal Focuses |
2014/08/11 11:01
|
A 17-year-old boy arrested in the death and sexual assault of a 6-year-old Washington state girl is due in court Monday.
Authorities still haven't released the name of the suspect, who was arrested Saturday in the Bremerton-area mobile home park from which Jenise Wright had disappeared a week earlier.
He was booked for investigation of second-degree murder, manslaughter and rape, and was scheduled to make an initial appearance at 3 p.m. in Kitsap County District Court.
Authorities said forensic evidence analyzed by the Washington state crime lab linked him to the crime. Earlier in the week, the sheriff's office collected DNA cheek swabs from dozens of nearby residents.
The Seattle Times reported Sunday that Kitsap County sheriff's detectives seized three vehicles from the suspect's home and completed final interviews of residents at the Steele Creek Mobile Home Park, the community where Wright went missing eight days earlier.
The statements and evidence collected Sunday will help authorities in "trying to put together a composite of the suspect for painting a picture for the court," Kitsap County Sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson told the Times.
A growing memorial at the entrance to the neighborhood includes silver balloons, stuffed animals, lit candles and flowers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Egypt court dissolves Muslim Brotherhood party
Headline News |
2014/08/11 11:00
|
Egypt's highest administrative court dissolved Saturday the political party of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and ordered its assets liquidated, in the latest move against the 86-year old Islamist group.
The decision against the Freedom and Justice Party comes ahead of parliamentary elections expected this year and prevents the group from trying to rejoin politics a year after leading member, President Mohammed Morsi, was overthrown by the military.
The party was founded in 2011 by the Brotherhood, Egypt's historic Islamist movement created in 1928, after President Hosni Mubarak was deposed in a popular uprising and it went on to dominate subsequent legislative elections.
The Middle East News Agency said the decision by the Supreme Administrative Court is final and can't be appealed.
In a statement, the Freedom and Justice Party said the dissolution won't succeed in uprooting the group's ideals. |
|
|
|
|
|
Italy court reopens probe into death of Pantani
Headline News |
2014/08/05 15:29
|
Italian prosecutors have reopened an investigation into the death of cyclist Marco Pantani after his family presented evidence contending the former Tour de France winner was murdered.
Pantani, who won both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in 1998, was found dead in a Rimini hotel room on Feb. 14, 2004. A coroner ruled the 34-year-old Italian died from a cocaine overdose.
The cyclist's mother, Tonina Pantani, has always claimed her son was murdered, alleging that he was forced to drink a lethal dose of cocaine dissolved in liquid.
"It's an important day, but with a bittersweet taste," Tonina said. "On one side I'm glad, after many years, finally I'm not shouting into the wind anymore. But inside me there's also anger, anger and more anger.
"Why did it take all this time? Why were several things not in their place in 2004 and nobody did anything to give me answers? I'm tired."
Rimini's chief prosecutor, Paolo Giovagnoli, confirmed Pantani's file has been reopened but said it is an "obligatory move" in such matters. He has handed the case to a colleague, Elisa Milocco, who will study the dossier of evidence presented by Pantani's family before returning from holiday in September. |
|
|
|
|
|
Texas Supreme Court: Parade Crash Trial in Midland
Legal Focuses |
2014/08/05 15:29
|
The Texas Supreme Court has ruled a negligence lawsuit stemming from the fatal collision of a train with a veterans' parade float in Midland in 2012 should be heard in Midland County.
The Midland Reporter-Telegram reports the state's highest civil court on Friday rejected a case that veterans and family members filed in Dallas. The railroad, Union Pacific, and the float provider, Smith Industries, wanted a trial in Midland because that's where the crash occurred.
Four people were killed and 13 others hurt in the 2012 crash. A federal investigating panel blamed the city and parade organizers for the accident.
Two pretrial hearings are set for Midland in September. The trial itself is set for January. |
|
|
|
|
|
Court throws out Chiquita terror payment claims
Legal Focuses |
2014/07/28 13:29
|
A divided federal appeals court on Thursday threw out claims potentially worth billions of dollars against produce giant Chiquita Brands International made by relatives of thousands of Colombians killed during years of bloody civil war.
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that federal courts have no jurisdiction over the Colombian claims. The lawsuits accused Chiquita of assisting in the killings by paying $1.7 million to a violent right-wing paramilitary group known as the AUC, the Spanish acronym for United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
Chiquita, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, formerly operated large banana plantations in Colombia through its Banadex subsidiary. Chiquita insists it was the victim of extortion and was forced to pay the AUC or face violence directed at its employees and assets in Colombia.
The majority cited a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Kiobel vs. Royal Dutch Petroleum that imposed limits on attempts by foreigners to use U.S. courts to seek damages against corporations for human rights abuses abroad. Chiquita had insisted that ruling meant the Colombians' lawsuit had to be tossed out.
"We are gratified that the U.S. Court of Appeals has now agreed with us and the claims have been dismissed," said Chiquita spokesman Ed Loyd in an email statement. "The decision reinforces what Chiquita has maintained from the beginning — that Chiquita is not responsible for the tragic violence that has plagued Colombia."
|
|
|
|
|
|
German court receives suit against EU bank union
Headline News |
2014/07/28 13:25
|
A group of German professors has filed a complaint to the country's highest court against the European Union's plans to create a so-called banking union, a central part of the effort to make the continent's financial system more resilient.
The Federal Constitutional Court said Monday it had received the complaint. It wasn't clear when the court might rule; verdicts on previous attempts to block measures meant to stem Europe's debt crisis took at least several months.
The group behind the complaint says the banking union "has no legal basis in the European treaties."
It objects to handing the European Central Bank direct supervision of the eurozone's biggest lenders with binding powers over national authorities, and opposes plans for a separate authority with the power to dissolve or restructure failing banks.
|
|
|
|
|