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Egyptian Leaders Meet in Defiance of Court and Military

CAIRO — In a raw contest between Egypt’s competing centers of power, legislators on Tuesday defied the country’s highest court and its most senior generals by holding a brief session of the dissolved Parliament, heeding an order by President Mohamed Morsi in the face of opposition — but no overt obstacles — from judges and the military.Later, the Supreme Constitutional Court, which decides matters of constitutional principle, issued a statement saying that the president’s order was in effect illegal, because it defied the court’s earlier ruling justifying the dissolution.
The parliamentary session lasted only a few minutes, long enough for lawmakers to decide in a voice vote to take the military’s order dissolving Parliament tothe Court of Cassation, a high appeals court that is one of a triumvirate of top courts in Egypt. Adding to the potential for judicial wrangling, the third top court, which rules on executive decisions, said Tuesday that its verdict would come next Tuesday.

South Americans ready to stop Spanish stroll

Spain's win at Euro 2012 - their third consecutive major tournament win - has sparkedoffall kinds of comparisons in the bar room debate over the best international team of all time.
Of course, such conversations have a strong subjective component, but it is hard to formulate arguments against the facts - and a fourth consecutive trophy will surely tip the balance in Spain's favour.
But title number four looks set to be the hardest of the lot. It entails doing what no European teamhas ever done - winning the World Cup on South American soil when the world come to Brazil in 2014.
Worse, it comes at a time when the South Americans, who have always won the trophy when it has been staged on their continent, have an unprecedented degree of strength in depth. This is something the reigning world and European champions should know from experience.

Lionel Messi will look totopple a Spain side that contains many of his Barcelona teammates

Soccer to Adopt Goal-Line Technology

After years of resisting the encroachment of technology into how soccer matches are officiated, the sport’s international leaders approved new systems Thursday to help determine if a ball crosses the goal line.
The International Football Association Board recommended to FIFA, soccer’s worldgoverning body, that it allow the implementation of two technology systems: Hawk-Eye and GoalRef. The systems could be put in place as early as the 2012-13 season in England’s Premier League (at a cost of about $200,000 per stadium), and will certainly arrive in time for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. FIFA said it also planned to use goal-line technology at the Club World Cup in Japan in December andin Brazil during the Confederations Cup next year.
The I.F.A.B., founded in 1886, is soccer’s pre-eminent lawmaking body, composed of four members from FIFA, including its president, Sepp Blatter, and four from the British associations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

Sentenced to "warlord" of the Congo by sending children into combat
Judge Adrian Fulford said Lubanga wouldeffectively spend eight more years behind bars
Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003.
Taking into account time in custody, he will now serve a further eight years.
In March, he became the first person to be convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it was set up 10 yearsago.
The conflict between ethnic groups in Ituri, north-eastern DR Congo, is estimated to have killed 60,000 people.
This was a local conflict within the wider DR Congo war, which left an estimated five million people dead - mostly from hunger and disease.
The Lubanga case is closely related to thecurrent fighting in DR Congo, where forces loyal to Gen Bosco Ntaganda are threatening the main...