Constitutional Court

Germany's constitutional court has upheld the country's participation in bailing out its financially ailing Eurozone neighbors, in a ruling Wednesday that was met with relief by many analysts and investors. But the high court also said that the German government should consult parliament for future rescues, a requirement that could slow down efforts to address the galloping debt crisis facing Europe, where markets have regularly outpaced politicians' ability to respond. The high court's qualified support for Berlin's participation in bailouts was largely expected by analysts who have followed the case.

At dusk, people hunker down for the evening, holding portable radios to their ears and clustering in doorways to peer at fuzzy black-and-white televisions. Shops are boarded up and hawkers flee before nightfall. The nights belong to the protesters. Most begin peacefully with the demonstrators seated on the ground, arms crossed, as they demand that their 85-year-old president step down. "The old man is dead," they chant. "We have had enough. " Then, stones are hurled and police retaliate with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons.

The president of Guatemala's Constitutional Court was shot and killed Friday night outside his home in Guatemala City as he returned with his family from a Holy Week celebration, a court spokeswoman said Saturday. No one claimed responsibility for the shooting by unidentified gunmen who were believed to have opened fire from a vehicle about 10:45 p.m.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday brushed aside criticism from gay rights and women's groups and appointed a conservative Christian to head the high court, a move that will affect the country's judicial system for at least a decade. Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who told a judicial panel last weekend that he believes God chose him to head the Constitutional Court, is a member of the Winners Chapel, which believes homosexuality is a disease that is "curable. " He has been widely criticized for several legal decisions that threw out jail sentences of men convicted of marital rape or assaulting their girlfriends and reduced the sentences of men convicted of raping children.

Boris N. Yeltsin's great triumph in last Sunday's referendum was made possible by one of the most astonishing phenomena of Russia's post- communist era--the newly created Constitutional Court. Five days be fore the vote, the court, led by its controversial chairman, Valery D. Zorkin, ruled that the Russian president needed only a majority of the votes cast--not a majority of the registered voters, as his parliamentary opponents claimed--to win the referendum.

Italy's highest court today overturned a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office, a major blow for a seemingly Teflon leader whose business dealings and personal peccadilloes have come under increasing fire. The highly anticipated ruling threw a question mark over Italy's political scene and the future of its longest-serving premier since World War II. Berlusconi, a billionaire businessman-turned-politician, is now likely to come under pressure to resign or to call a snap election as a bribery trial against him reopens after being put on hold with passage last year of the immunity law. At the least, analysts say, it will further distract his government as it grapples with the global recession and as Berlusconi continues to dodge embarrassing allegations that he allowed prostitutes to attend parties at his home.

President Thabo Mbeki inaugurated South Africa's new Constitutional Court building on the grounds of a 100-year-old former prison fortress where Nelson Mandela was detained. "It is right that the Constitutional Court occupies this building, which represents the conversion of the negative, the hateful energy The $73-million edifice will house the 11-judge court that presides over legal challenges to the nation's basic law.

When Valery Dmitrievich Zorkin glances up from the desk in his spacious, wood-paneled office, he sees a bucolic Russian landscape on the opposite wall. Its only remarkable feature is a pale sun that hovers just above the horizon. The chairman of Russia's Constitutional Court says he chose the painting for the riddle it suggests--one he often ponders himself and poses teasingly to visitors. "Can you tell me whether what you see here is a sunset or a sunrise?" he asks them.

Russia's Constitutional Court dealt a sharp blow to President Boris N. Yeltsin on Thursday by upholding the conservative-run Parliament's vote to strip him of control over state-owned television and news agencies. But whether the verdict actually means anything in the confusing turmoil of Russian politics became the topic of debate. The Itar-Tass news agency, the Russian Information Agency and Russian Television--the affected media--kept operating as before.

Italy's constitutional court struck down a law that shielded Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and four other top officials from prosecution, a decision likely to send him back to the Milan courtroom where he was on trial for alleged corruption before Parliament hastily passed the law last summer. The court said the law violated the constitutional principle of equal justice for all. The decision can't be appealed.

Germany's constitutional court has upheld the country's participation in bailing out its financially ailing Eurozone neighbors, in a ruling Wednesday that was met with relief by many analysts and investors. But the high court also said that the German government should consult parliament for future rescues, a requirement that could slow down efforts to address the galloping debt crisis facing Europe, where markets have regularly outpaced politicians' ability to respond. The high court's qualified support for Berlin's participation in bailouts was largely expected by analysts who have followed the case.

Italy's highest court today overturned a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office, a major blow for a seemingly Teflon leader whose business dealings and personal peccadilloes have come under increasing fire. The highly anticipated ruling threw a question mark over Italy's political scene and the future of its longest-serving premier since World War II. Berlusconi, a billionaire businessman-turned-politician, is now likely to come under pressure to resign or to call a snap election as a bribery trial against him reopens after being put on hold with passage last year of the immunity law. At the least, analysts say, it will further distract his government as it grapples with the global recession and as Berlusconi continues to dodge embarrassing allegations that he allowed prostitutes to attend parties at his home.

Even before he became president, Jacob Zuma vowed to "transform" the South African judiciary. Translation: There were too many white male apartheid-era judges and too few nonwhites and women. Now Zuma will appoint four new judges to the 11-member Constitutional Court in coming months, his chance to effect a transformation that will shape the country's highest court on constitutional matters. But the nebulous definition of "transformation" has some people worried. To critics, the term has been so diluted by nepotism and cronyism that it's come to mean appointing your political friends.

The man who led last year's coup in Mauritania has officially won the presidency in weekend elections, the Constitutional Court said just hours after the election chief resigned over doubts about the ballot. Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, who had resigned as junta leader to run in the elections, received 52.47% of Saturday's vote, according to the court. The final count matched preliminary results given Sunday. The victory came with controversy, however, with the election commission chief, Sid'Ahmed Ould Dey, saying complaints filed with the court and the commission "have sown doubts in my mind."

South Africans living abroad should get the right to vote, the High Court ruled Monday, a decision that, if upheld, could have profound implications for the fate of the nation's leadership. The country's president-in-waiting, ruling African National Congress chief Jacob Zuma, is to go on trial on corruption charges in August. The ANC needs to keep its two-thirds parliamentary majority in coming elections in order to change the constitution so Zuma can avoid trial as president.

After months of debate, Germany's lower house of Parliament passed anti-terrorism legislation granting federal police the capacity to spy on computer use and wiretap conversations. Those powers have been held only by Germany's foreign intelligence service. The measure is expected to easily pass the upper house and take effect before the end of the year. The bill has been sharply criticized as infringing on the privacy rights guaranteed by the constitution. Members of the opposition Free Democratic Party have said they will challenge it in the constitutional court.

Russia's highest court backed the tiny republic of Mordovia on Thursday in a bitter dispute with President Boris N. Yeltsin, Itar-Tass news agency said. The Constitutional Court ruled that the local Parliament had not exceeded its authority when it dismissed Mordovian President Vasili Guslyannikov and abolished the presidency in April. Yeltsin had accused Mordovia's Parliament of flouting the system of executive power in Russia.

President Thabo Mbeki inaugurated South Africa's new Constitutional Court building on the grounds of a 100-year-old former prison fortress where Nelson Mandela was detained. "It is right that the Constitutional Court occupies this building, which represents the conversion of the negative, the hateful energy The $73-million edifice will house the 11-judge court that presides over legal challenges to the nation's basic law.

Italy's constitutional court struck down a law that shielded Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and four other top officials from prosecution, a decision likely to send him back to the Milan courtroom where he was on trial for alleged corruption before Parliament hastily passed the law last summer. The court said the law violated the constitutional principle of equal justice for all. The decision can't be appealed.