Competition
Law
Intel
faces huge competition fine - 12 May
Intel, the computer chipmaker, is in line for one of the largest
fines for anti-competitive behaviour handed out by the authorities
in Europe. The European Commission is expected to approve the
penalty on Wednesday. It is likely to be similar to the 497m euros
($650m, £480m) fine levied on Microsoft in 2004 for abusing its
dominant market position. The Commission is also set to impose a
"cease and desist" order requiring Intel to change its business
practices. Some observers say the fine from the EU's executive arm
could be as high a one billion euros. -
BBC News website
EU slaps a
record fine on Intel - 13 May
Computer chipmaker Intel has been fined a record 1.06bn euros
($1.45bn ; £948m) by the European Commission for anti-competitive
practices. The Commission found that between 2002 and 2007, Intel
had paid manufacturers and a retailer to favour its products. The
investigation followed a complaint by the world's second-biggest
chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The Commission said that
Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC had been given hidden rebates if they
only used Intel chips. -
BBC News
website
Croatia
Croatian MP
jailed for war crimes - 8 May
A far-right Croat MP has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for
war crimes against Serb civilians during Croatia's war of
independence in the early 1990s. A court in Zagreb found Branimir
Glavas had given orders to a paramilitary unit under his command to
murder six Serbs in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991. The former
general was charged last year after the Croatian parliament
partially lifted his legal immunity. -
BBC News website
Emigration and
Immigration
The European
Parliament sets out new rules on asylum policy - 8 May
A package of measures to improve the way the EU asylum system works
and strengthening asylum seekers' rights has been adopted today by
the European Parliament. MEPs adopted amendments to enhance
solidarity between Member States when managing asylum applications,
and call for a binding mechanism to be set up before 2012. -
eGov Monitor website
Germany
Demjanjuk
'fit to stay in jail' - 13 May
Suspected Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk is fit enough to be held
in jail until such time as he goes on trial, German prison doctors
say. -
BBC News website
See also :
United States. Human Rights
German court bans very long names - 5 May
Germany is renowned for fighting inflation, but the battle extends
beyond money and into the realm of names. In a split decision on
Tuesday, the German Constitutional Court upheld a ban on married
people combining already-hyphenated names, forbidding last names of
three parts or more. The case brought Germany's
minister of justice before the court in Karlsruhe for oral arguments
in February to defend the ban on what the Germans call
"chain names".
It was not the first time the court was forced to weigh in on the
subject of names, which are regulated start to finish, fore to
family, here in Germany. -
New
York Times website
Germany
moves to outlaw paintball - 9 May
The German government says it plans to ban combat games such as
paintball, in response to a recent school shooting. The new measures
being proposed to parliament also include tighter gun control rules
and give officials the right to conduct checks on gun owners. Anyone
defying the proposed new rule could face a 5 000-euro (£4 474) fine.
Sixteen people, including the gunman, were killed in the school
shooting in March. -
BBC News
website
Italy
Achille
Lauro hijacker released - 30 April
The leader of a Palestinian group which hijacked cruise liner
Achille Lauro in 1985 and killed an American Jewish passenger has
been released from jail. Youssef Magied al-Molqui, one of four
hijackers who were tried and sentenced to long jail terms in
Italy, was freed early on grounds of good behaviour. A judge has
ordered Mr Molqui, who has an Italian wife, to be expelled. He
served nearly 24 years of a 30-year sentence for hijacking the
Italian cruise liner. Another convicted Achille Lauro hijacker
Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif, who was released in 2008, remains in
Italy while he appeals against his own expulsion order. -
BBC News website
See also :
Achille Lauro hijacking, Mediterranean Sea, October 1985
Special Operations
website
Land Affairs
House-selling and buying to be made simpler - 10 May
New measures include EU directive that contracts are concluded
electronically and online conveyancing case-management system. We
look set to benefit from moves to revolutionise the buying and
selling of houses in Scotland that should see and end to such
problems. The first is a new European Union directive that requires
that legal systems should be set up to allow contracts to be
concluded electronically, which will change for ever the way that
property titles are transferred. Along with the EU directive, two
further innovations will help to speed up the buying and selling
process. One is a drive towards a standard set of national missives
and the other is an advanced online conveyancing case-management
system that can deliver paperless conveyancing, property
registration and ownership transfer at a stroke. -
Times Online
website
The end of an island dream ; and the return of sealed bidding -
30 April
A landmark ruling from the European Court of Justice this week means
that an estimated 4 000 Britons who own
homes in Northern Cyprus may have to demolish their properties or
pay compensation to the original landowner. The ruling follows a
legal battle between Meletis Apostolides, a Greek Cypriot who fled
the area after the Turkish invasion in 1974, and Linda and David
Orams, a British couple who later built a villa there. This week's
European court verdict backs a previous ruling by a Cypriot court
that the villa should be demolished, and it could pave the way for
other Greek Cypriots to claim back land. -
Times Online
website
Sweden
Swedish protestors vandalism-sentenced because of warplane to
Thailand - 4 May
Three Swedish peace activists from
the group Avrusta (Disarm), whose mission is to stop Sweden from
exporting weapons, have been sentenced to prison for their attempt
to destroy three warplanes in March. The
three Gripen jets were bound for South Africa and Thailand. During
their trial, the activists argued that their actions were
justifiable, as they wanted to prevent the jets from going to
nations in conflict. Neither Thailand nor South Africa is in the
midst of any major war. The court rejected their argument
and convicted them all for attempted sabotage.
-
ScandAsia website
Switzerland
UBS claims naming tax evaders would break law - 1 May
UBS would be forced to break Swiss criminal law if it gave
America's tax authorities the names of potential tax evaders, the
Swiss bank warned today. The bank was responding to a lawsuit
filed in February by the Internal Revenue Service demanding that
UBS hand over the names of 52 000
Americans with offshore accounts at the bank. UBS said that the
lawsuit trampled on Switzerland's sovereignty by trying to force
UBS to contravene its home country's strict banking secrecy laws.
-
Times Online
website