Category: International

Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, International, Society

Court Clerk Caught Watching Porn As Rape Victim Testifies At Trial

Debasish Majumder, 54, a court clerk in London, has pleaded guilty to watching pornography during a rape trial in court, including while the victim testified on her sexual assault. Majumber pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and five counts of possession of indecent images. The latter charge appears to be child pornography found on his home computer. The Right Honorable Judge Nigel Seed (left) discovered the pornographic surfing.

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Bizarre, International, Politics, Society

Harvard Invades Cameroon: University Moves To Evict Embassy

Harvard appears to be moving to secure its borders against other nation states. In an interesting landlord-tenant dispute, Harvard has charged that Cameroon is squatting on its property on embassy row. The country has been the university’s tenant for two years but its lease expired a week ago. A week? That is not a lot of time for almost 19 million people to collect their stuff, get moving buddies, a truck, and find a new crib.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Religion, Society

Iranian Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence Of Canadian Resident Over Use Of His Photo-Uploading Software

The Iranian Supreme Court has added its authority to the campaign against free speech in the Islamic Republic by upholding the death sentence of Iranian-born Canadian resident Saeid Malekpour, who is charged with “insulting the sanctity of Islam” and “corruption on earth.” Malekpour was arrested while visiting his ailing father because his photo-uploading software was used by a porn website even though it appears to have been done without his knowledge. Citizens around the world have rallied to his side, but the court insisted that Sharia law demands death.

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International, Media, Military, Politics

It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

Possible nuclear weapons capability, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, a threat to Israel, economic sanctions, fears of links to al Qaeda, and a compliant news media. Sounds like the hype leading up to war with Iraq, but this time it’s Iran.

Israel has been threatening to strike Iran’s nuclear enrichment plants unilaterally. Obama dispatched General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to tell the Israelis that the US wouldn’t participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel unless Washington had given its prior agreement.

On the map on the left, each star indicates the location of a US airbase.

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Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Society

Ambassador Apologizes To Her Children and Her Country For Signing ACTA

While some may view it as a little late, Slovenia’s ambassador to Japan has apologized to her children and her nation for signing Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which has been condemned for opening the door to Internet censorship and government abuse. Helena Drnovsek Zorko appears not to have read the law very carefully and only later read the criticism from Slovenian citizens.

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Criminal law, International, Religion, Society

Paris Appellate Court Upholds Fraud Conviction Against Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology has lost another case involving its allegedly fraudulent practices in extracting money from followers. A Paris appellate court has upheld the entirety of a fraud conviction and the fine of hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology. The ruling comes at a time when current members have joined former members in challenging the practices of the Church.

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Academia, International, Society

Arggg! U.S. Court Orders The Return Of 500 Million Dollars Of Gold Coins To Spain

An appellate court has upheld a lower court decision that ordered American treasure-hunter Odyssey Marine Exploration to return to Spain some 594,000 gold and silver coin valued at roughly $500 million recovered on the ocean floor from a sunken Spanish Galleon. The United States government supported the Spanish in the claim and the coins are supposed to be returned to Spain within ten days.

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Environment, International, Science, Society

India Takes First Place . . . In The Worst Air Pollution In The World

India’s booming economy has long had a dark side in the form of rampant pollution. Like China, the country has gone full throttle on a production-oriented society while ignoring rising pollution and illnesses associated with pollutants. Now, in a study of 132 countries, India has reached the bottom of the list of dirty air countries or, to put a more positive spin, the top spot on the most dirty countries. Nevertheless, the government is not concerned and assured the public that this is really not that bad.

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International, Politics, Society, Torts

South Africa Recalls Over One Million Defective Condoms Distributed As Part Of ANC Celebrations

The South African government has long been accused of mixed efforts in combating AIDS despite the country having one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. Now the government is accused of handing out more than a million free condoms at the African National Congress centenary celebrations that are defective and leak.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Religion, Society

Afghan Man Allegedly Strangles Wife For Bearing Him A Girl Rather Than A Son

It appears that Henry VIII is alive and well in Afghanistan . . . but not his wife. In another horrendous attack on a woman in that country, police are seeking Sher Mohammad who they say strangled his wife for giving birth to a girl rather than the boy that he wanted. Putting aside the man’s apparent ignorance of the fact that it was he who determined the gender of the child, it is another example of how women in some of these insular Muslim communities are treated as chattel. The man’s mother, Wali Hazrata, is accused of tying the feet of 22-year-old Stori or Estorai. She has been arrested while her son is believed to be with an illegal militia group.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, International, Politics, Society

The Devil’s Fork

Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

With apologies to Archbishop of Canterbury John Morton, I’m offering this version of his famous “fork”:

You’re a young idealist standing for the highest office in the land. Against many odds you’ve offered a candidacy of hope and change to an electorate tired of both war and the prior Administration that got them into those wars. There are rumors of widespread atrocities committed by that Administration in response to a horrific terrorist attack on American soil where thousands of your countrymen died. In your capacity as an US Senator, you’ve been briefed on several of these and you see a pattern developing. You’re a Constitutionalist;  a lawyer; and a principled man, but you recognize the nation faces a real threat of nuclear holocaust at the hands of committed, well-funded terrorists supported and protected by renegade states and even some of our allies. These terrorists have a fanatical zeal and value martyrdom above self-preservation. You believe that if they acquire weapons of mass destruction the question will not be if millions of people will die, but which millions of people will die.

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Academia, Bizarre, Free Speech, International, Media, Society

English Court Rules That Company Violated Copyright Protections By Selling Its Own Photo Of A London Bus Resembling Someone’s Photo Of A London Bus

We have often discussed the ever-widening scope of copyright and trademark laws. This trend has prompted lawsuit over using generic images or terms, obvious parodies, or names. Now, an English court has ruled in favor of UK souvenir maker Temple Island Collection Ltd against New English Teas for using a picture of a London bus. Not a picture taken by Temple Island, mind you: Taking its own picture of a London bus that the court deemed as too close to a picture of a London bus taken by Temple Island. The Defendant used photoshop software to alter the image.

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Academia, International, Politics, Religion, Society

One in Five Young Germans Do Not Know Auschwitz Was A Death Camp

We have previously discussed how history is being forgotten in the United States, England, and other countries. We can now add Germany to the list. While one would hope that there are certain historical facts that are indelible, one in five young Germans has no idea that Auschwitz was a Nazi death camp.

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Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Politics

French Senate Makes Denying Armenian Genocide A Crime

We have been following the rapid diminishing of free speech in the West in recent years. It is particularly disconcerting to see this trend in our close allies of England and France (For a prior column, click here). Now, the French Senate has added a new speech crime — denying the fact of the Armenian genocide by Turkey. While I commend the motivation, the legislation is blind to the implications to free speech by criminalizing certain subjects for debate. It seeks to force critics to be silent under threat of criminal prosecution — an approach that produces only the appearance of agreement while denying citizens the basic right to be heard on such controversies.

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