Royal Dutch Shell suffered a 73 per cent collapse in its profits during the third quarter on weak volumes and falling oil prices and detailed plans to cut 5,000 of its staff.
Stock markets fell broadly in Asia on Thursday after weak new U.S. home sales data revived fears that the global economic recovery is faltering.
These are heady times for advocates of legalized marijuana in California — and only in small part because of the newly relaxed approach of the federal government toward medical marijuana.
The Supreme Court of Hawaii announced Friday that state courts will be closed two Fridays each month beginning in November 2009. Chief Justice Ronald Moon [official profile] found that the difficult decision was necessary due to the financial conditions that currently exist in Hawaii. Moon ordered:
U.S. antitrust regulators are moving toward filing a complaint against Intel Corp after the European Union fined the world´s biggest chipmaker $1.45 billion for engaging in anticompetitive practices, sources said.
The US Senate [official website] on Thursday voted 68-29 [roll call] to approve a bill that extends the definition of federal hate crimes to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act [S 909 text] is part of a $681 billion military appropriations conference report for fiscal year 2010, and enables the Department of Justice to investigate or prosecute hate crimes that result in death or serious injury by assisting state and local authorities or by assuming a principal role if those authorities are unwilling or unable to act.
The US Treasury Department [official website] on Thursday released a series of rulings that would restrict executive compensation [press release] at institutions that received special assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) [text]. Among the changes are a cash cap on compensation of $500,000 per year for most relevant employees, immediate vesting of stock options for those paid in that manner, and a limit on stock provided as incentive compensation, including ties to corporate performance and repayment of TARP funds. The restrictions would apply to the five most senior executives and the other 20 highest paid employees at American International Group (AIG), Citigroup, Bank of America, Chrysler, General Motors (GM), GMAC, and Chrysler Financial [corporate websites].
US Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated the need for authorities to adhere to the rule of law when conducting investigations into potential terrorist activities in a speech Friday on the role the Department of Justice (DOJ) plays in investigating terrorism. Holder appeared to take issue with how such investigations were handled by the Bush administration.
The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] on Thursday unanimously struck down [judgment text; press release] a Quebec law restricting certain students´ access to English-language schools as unconstitutional. The court´s decision overturns Bill 104 [text], enacted by the Quebec government in 2002, rejecting two appeals by the Quebec government to protect the legislation.
Finnish telecommunications company Nokia [corporate website] filed suit [press release] Thursday against Apple [corporate website] in the US District Court for the District of Delaware [official website], alleging that Apple infringed 10 of its patents on its iPhone. The patents cover wireless data transmission, speech coding, and security/encryption, specifically GSM, UTMS (3G), and WLAN standards. Nokia alleges that Apple has infringed its right to exclude others from those technologies since the first iPhone was released in 2007. Nokia´s Vice-President of Legal and Intellectual Property Ilkka Rahnasto said that:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted Thursday to approve the formation of rules mandating so-called "net neutrality", promising openness commensurate with the ideals of the Internet itself. The idea of net neutrality, supported unanimously by the FCC commissioners, is to allow an open flow of information over the Internet, regardless of the amount of revenue generated by the information.
A new lawsuit alleges that convicted swindler Bernie Madoff financed a cocaine-fueled work environment and a "culture of sexual deviance," and he diverted money to his London, England, office when he believed federal authorities were closing in at home.
Mexico saw the first public protests this weekend over the government´s decision to allow cultivation of the first genetically modified corn, which environmentalists and others say could ruin the nation´s native crop.
The US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Thursday issued a stay of execution for Ohio death row inmate Kenneth Biros, as the state continues to review its lethal injection procedures. Biros is the fourth Ohio death inmate to be granted a stay of execution since the failed attempt to execute Romell Broom in September 2009. Along with Broom, the executions Darryl Durr and Lawrence Reynolds have also been postponed. Biros was convicted of a 1991 murder and attempted rape and was scheduled to be executed on December 8.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives moved closer on Tuesday to agreeing on a broad healthcare reform plan that would include the most liberal version of a government-run public insurance option.
The jury system is threatened by the internet generation, who no longer get their information from listening to people speaking, the Lord Chief Justice warned yesterday.
US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a temporary order Monday prohibiting the publication of the names of those who signed a Washington state petition to overturn a state law giving same-sex partners the same rights as married partners. Kennedy´s order, which reversed an order issued last week by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, prohibits the publication of signers´ names until the Court orders otherwise. The petition, which gathered enough signatures to be placed on this fall´s ballot, puts to a statewide vote a bill passed in April by the legislature giving domestic partners the same legal rights and benefits as married partners.
The lawyer of a Colorado father accused of carrying out a bizarre hoax involving his son and a huge balloon said Monday that official charges in the case could be filed next week.
Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said on Monday that Asian nations were pulling the global economy out of its downturn but warned that both Asia and the United States needed to do more to reduce global trade imbalances.
In a policy shift, the Obama administration told federal prosecutors not to go after patients who use medical marijuana or dispensaries in states where it has been legalized, as long as they comply with state and federal laws.
A Justice Department official said the formal guidelines were sent on Monday in a policy change reflecting President Barack Obama´s views. The Bush administration had said it could enforce the federal law against marijuana and that it trumped state laws.
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