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Chile's top court rules to extradite Fujimori
Legal World News |
2007/09/21 12:11
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Chile's Supreme Court said on Friday it had ruled to extradite Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori to face charges of embezzlement and human rights abuses during the 1990s. Alberto Chaigneau, president of the courtroom where the extradition case was heard, said magistrates had accepted seven of the 13 points made by Peruvian state prosecutors seeking to bring Fujimori to trial. The Supreme Court ruling cannot be appealed. Fujimori, 69, has been in Chile since November 2005, when he was arrested on an international warrant after flying into the country from Japan. He was apparently planning to launch a political comeback in Peru, where he served two terms as president from 1990 until 2000. His government collapsed in a massive corruption scandal and he fled to exile in Japan. Peruvian prosecutors want to try Fujimori on charges of embezzling $15 million and using excessive anti-terrorism measures -- including allegations of two massacres -- to crush Maoist rebel group Shining Path. But many Peruvians still admire him for capturing Shining Path's top leaders and defeating its insurgency. |
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Greenberg Traurig Named Top Illinois Firm in Real Estate
Law Firm News |
2007/09/21 05:56
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The Legal 500 US - Volume IV recognized Greenberg Traurig as being among the top firms in Illinois in the area of Real Estate. The Chicago office was named a leader in the following categories:- Transactions and Finance
- Land Use and Zoning
Additionally, the Guide recognized Chicago Real Estate shareholders Corey Light (Transactions and Finance) and Mark McCombs (Land Use and Zoning). The Legal 500 US - Volume IV: Real Estate, Labor and Employment, and Tax is the fourth of four guides covering the U.S. legal market. The guide provides independent and unbiased commentary on pre-eminent law firms, and lawyers, in the world’s strongest and most competitive legal market.
About Greenberg Traurig, LLPGreenberg Traurig, LLP is an international, full-service law firm with more than 1,700 attorneys and governmental affairs professionals in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The firm is ranked seventh on The American Lawyer's Am Law 100 listing of the largest law firms in the U.S., based on number of lawyers. Greenberg Traurig serves clients from offices in: Albany, NY; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Atlanta, GA; Boca Raton, FL; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Morristown, NJ; New York, NY; Orange County, CA; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Sacramento, CA; Silicon Valley, CA; Tallahassee, FL; Tampa Bay, FL; Tokyo, Japan; Tysons Corner, VA; Washington, D.C.; West Palm Beach, FL; Wilmington, DE; and Zurich, Switzerland. Additionally, the firm has strategic alliances with the following independent law firms: Olswang, London and Brussels; Studio Santa Maria, Milan and Rome; and Hayabusa Asuka Law Offices in Tokyo. For additional information, please visit the firm's Web site at www.gtlaw.com. |
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Spector Judge to Withdraw Instruction
Headline News |
2007/09/20 15:12
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The deadlocked jury in the Phil Spector murder trial was asked to resume its deliberations after the judge yesterday said he would withdraw a legal instruction that jurors said was a stumbling block in reaching a verdict. The decision to drop the instruction came yesterday afternoon. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler had earlier decided not to allow the jurors to consider a lesser charge. "There's some good news," Fidler told the jurors before letting them go for the day. "We will give you new instructions that may be a benefit to you." Jurors will return this morning. On Tuesday, the jury of nine men and three women said it was split 7-5 on whether famed record producer Spector, 67, shot actress Lana Clarkson, 40, on Feb. 3, 2003. The jury was not allowed to say whether the majority supported guilt or acquittal. When Fidler polled the jurors yesterday morning, they indicated they had questions about Special Instruction 3. They also said they had discussions about how to determine reasonable doubt. Special Instruction 3 lays out the prosecution theory of the encounter between Spector and Clarkson on Feb. 3. "It is the prosecution's contention that the act committed by the defendant that caused the death of Ms. Clarkson was to point a gun at her, which resulted in that gun entering Ms. Clarkson's mouth while in Mr. Spector's hand," Fidler told the jurors Sept. 10 before sending them off to deliberate. "The prosecution bears the burden of proving that defendant Spector committed that act. If you do not find that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the act, you must return a verdict of not guilty," Fidler said. The problem with the instruction, Fidler said yesterday, was that the last sentence misstated the law. "I can see why the jury is confused," he said. The judge said he would give both sides a chance to reargue before the jury resumes deliberations. |
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Agriculture Secretary Johanns resigns
Law & Politics |
2007/09/20 14:06
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Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns resigned after nearly three years in office on Thursday, clearing the way to run for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska, where he was a popular two-term governor. President George W. Bush announced the decision by Johanns, who became the latest in a series of senior officials to depart the administration including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Bush's longtime political adviser Karl Rove. Johanns was expected to announce his candidacy as early as Monday for the seat being vacated by fellow Republican Chuck Hagel after two terms. Analysts say Johanns would be the front-runner of four men seeking the GOP nomination. Nebraska is a Republican-leaning state. Democrats have talked of recruiting Bob Kerrey, a former U.S. senator and Nebraska governor who is now a university president in New York City. Democrats control the Senate, 51-49. As agriculture secretary, the mild-spoken Johanns pressed U.S. trading partners to remove barriers to U.S. beef, erected out of fears of mad cow disease, and to expand farm exports, which account for a quarter of farm income. He took the lead in administration proposals to deny farm subsidies to the wealthiest Americans. In his resignation letter to Bush, Johanns said the U.S. farm sector "is stronger than ever before," with high crop prices and record farm exports. "After careful thought and difficult deliberation, I am writing to inform you that I have decided to pursue a new opportunity to serve this great nation," wrote Johanns. Nebraska is a major grain and cattle-producing state. Democrats in Nebraska said Johanns was leaving USDA without completing an important task -- overhaul of U.S. farm policy this year. Johanns resigned as governor to become agriculture secretary in January 2005. Born in Iowa, Johanns practiced law in western Nebraska before election as mayor of Lincoln, the state capital, in 1991 en route to the governorship in 1998. He once said that for a former farm boy, being agriculture secretary was a dream job. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Charles Conner was named acting secretary until Bush nominates a permanent replacement. The Agriculture Department, with 100,000 employees, is in charge of crop subsidies, the national forests, a vast research network and public nutrition programs including school lunch and food stamps. Ferd Hoefner of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said Johanns was the first USDA chief in decades to try to rein in farm payments and to show interest in beginning farmers. But lawmakers have faulted Johanns for the faltering campaign to create a nationwide animal-tracking system, originally embraced by the administration as a key safeguard against mad cow and other fearsome diseases. USDA relies on voluntary participation in the program. "He has been a clear and open advocate for ethanol within the administration," said Jay Truitt of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Truitt said Johanns "was the first to understand" how the explosive growth of the fuel ethanol industry would squeeze livestock and meat producers. |
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David Hicks to obey US gag order, says lawyer
Lawyer Blog News |
2007/09/20 13:20
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David Hicks has told his lawyer he will abide by the US-ordered ban on speaking to the media when he is released from jail in December. This is despite an acknowledgement by federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock that the restriction - part of the plea bargain that allowed Hicks to serve out the balance of his sentence in Australia - is probably unenforceable. Hicks, 32, who was convicted by a US military court of supporting terrorism, was yesterday shown mug shots of persons of interest to Australian police when they interviewed him in jail in Adelaide. But his lawyer, David McLeod, said Hicks had largely been unable to assist them. The hour-long interview at the Yatala maximum-security prison was the first to be conducted with Hicks on Australian soil. Mr McLeod described it as a "sweeping up exercise" ahead of Hicks's scheduled release from jail on December 29. "He was basically asked a series of questions and shown various images," said Mr McLeod, who sat in on the questioning. "He was unable to assist in most of it, though his intention was to assist as best he could." Mr McLeod said Hicks had told him he would honour the US-imposed ban on speaking immediately after his release, meaning Australians would not be able to hear his account of his time with Taliban forces in Afghanistan and his treatment by the Americans until March next year at the earliest. While the Howard Government has warned Hicks it would intervene to prevent him from profiting from the sale of his story, Mr Ruddock has acknowledged that the US gag on non-paid media interviews probably could not be enforced in Australia. But Mr McLeod said Hicks wanted to take no chances with breaching the conditions of his plea bargain with the US military, under which he returned home in May to serve out the balance of his sentence. Under the deal, clinched in March at the controversial detention centre in Guantanamo Bay where Hicks spent most of his five years in US custody, he agreed not to speak to the media for at least a year. |
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Fed's Bernanke predicts further mortgage turmoil
Business Law Info |
2007/09/20 12:08
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More delinquencies and foreclosures can be expected in the subprime, adjustable-rate mortgage market as borrowers face interest-rate resets, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday. In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Bernanke also said the market for those mortgages has "adjusted sharply," and that markets "do tend to self-correct." He outlined steps the Fed is taking to help reduce the risk of foreclosure and stressed the need to beef up underwriting practices. Just two days after the Fed lowered the federal funds rate by 50 basis points, Bernanke also said the central bank stands ready to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth. "Recent developments in financial markets have increased the uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook," Bernanke said. "The [Federal Open Market] Committee will continue to assess the effects of these and other developments on economic prospects and will act as needed to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth," he said. Bernanke said the recent surprise half-percentage point rate cut was designed to forestall potential effects of tighter credit conditions on the broader economy. "We took that action to try to get out ahead of the situation," Bernanke said. Bernanke said the central bank's economists would constantly review their internal forecast. "There is quite a bit of uncertainty, so we're going to have to continue to monitor how the financial markets evolve and how their effects on the economy evolve and try to keep reassessing our outlook and adjusting policy to meet" the Fed's twin goals of price stability and low unemployment. Still, he said, the global financial system is "in a relatively strong position" to work through the recent credit and market turbulence. |
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