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Greater Manchester voters are to be polled over whether they want a referendum on UK membership of the European Union.

BANGKOK (AP) -- Just two years ago, Thailand was at war with itself. Rifle shots and exploding grenades rang out in Bangkok as troops crushed through barricades to disperse a nine-week-old insurrection. A retired nurse was the last to capitulate....

24 hours of news photos: 18 May

telegraph.co.uk | Contracted from inhaling toxic particles released after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York.

The EU Commission and European Central Bank are making contingency plans for a possible Greek exit from the euro, an EU commissioner says.

Tracking a cell phone by court order was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment under Jones because there was no trespass on defendant’s property. (Defendant had the telephone that was the target of a tracking warrant, and that was sufficient to give him standing. His name was even on the tracking order issued by the Florida state court.) United States v. Sereme, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68202 (M.D. Fla. March 26, 2012):

With regard to the merits, the Defendant argues that the interception of his movements by the use of a GPS device constituted a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment and therefore any items of evidence found at the traffic stop must be suppressed. Here, the Government had obtained an order from a state court judge which instructed Sprint to provide the location of the cell phone in question at any time for a period of sixty days. There was no device physically placed on the vehicle by law enforcement. Rather, the monitoring was only done through the cellular telephone. This distinction is important as the Supreme Court recently held in United States v. Jones, that the Government's installation of a GPS tracking device on a vehicle and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements without a valid warrant was a search in violation of Jones' rights. United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012). Sereme relies on Jones, contending that the GPS evidence should be suppressed as five members of the Court in a concurring opinion authored by Justice Alito, expressed the view that long-term GPS monitoring of an individual by law enforcement impinges on expectations of privacy, without regard to the specific technology employed. Id. at 954, 964. "But the use of longer term GPS monitoring in investigations of most offenses impinges on expectations of privacy. For such offenses, society's expectation has been that law enforcement agents and others would not—and indeed, in the main, simply could not—secretly monitor and catalogue every single movement of an individual's car, for a very long period." Id. at 964. The concurring opinion was not limited to the attachment of physical devices to monitor movements.

In this case, there was no physical trespass onto Sereme's property. There was no physical device attached to the car in which he was a passenger or any other piece of his property. Based upon this Court's reading, the Jones opinion does nothing to preclude the Government's monitoring of individuals through the use of cell site technology. As the opinion stated, it resolved only "whether the attachment of a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device to an individual's vehicle, and subsequent use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements on public streets, constitutes a search or seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment." Jones, 132 S. Ct. at 948. The Supreme Court has not answered the broader question presented here which is whether the Government's monitoring of an individual's movements through their cell phone for a certain period of time constitutes a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and more importantly whether that "search" requires a warrant issued upon probable cause of some other level of suspicion, such as the traditional reasonable suspicion.

In this case, law enforcement monitored and tracked the movements of the target telephone that was believed to be used by Sereme for a period of 12 days after law enforcement had received an Order allowing them to do so in accordance with Fla. Stat. § 934.32. Thus, the initial stop of the vehicle was not unlawful on these grounds.

A painting showing President Jacob Zuma with his genitals hanging out sparks the anger of South Africa's ANC, which says it will go to court.

AP | Demonstrators from East Coast occupy movements and others plan to protest.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's former special adviser Adam Smith will give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry next week, it is announced.

The wreckage of a vessel is found on the seabed during the search for a fishing boat with three crew missing off the Dorset coast.

Defendant was seen leaving a stash house with a box, and he was followed from a distance where he went to a liquor store and then somewhere else. He was stopped but the stop was without probable cause. There was no showing that he had drugs when he left the stash house and his driving was not indicative of “counter-surveillance.” Officer's alleged expertise that it was a stash house was a mere unsupported conclusion. United States v. Cervantes, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 9843 (9th Cir. May 16, 2012):

The government asks us to place heavy reliance on Hankel's conclusory statement that, based on Hankel's training and experience, the white box in Cervantes's possession came from a "suspected narcotics stash house." But in the absence of any underlying facts as to why Hankel suspected the house was a "stash house," this statement is entitled to little, if any, weight in the probable cause analysis.

"One of the themes which runs through the decisions on the Fourth Amendment probable cause requirement is that when the ultimate probable cause determination is made, whether by a magistrate when a warrant is sought or upon a motion to suppress evidence obtained without a warrant, mere conclusions will not suffice." 2 Wayne Lafave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 3.5(e), at 297 (4th ed. 2004). See, e.g., Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 239 (noting that "wholly conclusory" statements of officers are insufficient to establish probable cause); United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 108-09 (1965) (noting that "purely conclusory" statements of officers, without detailing any of the underlying circumstances, will be insufficient to establish probable cause); Nathanson v. United States, 290 U.S. 41, 47 (1933) (noting that an officer's "mere affirmance of suspicion or belief without disclosure of supporting facts or circumstances" is insufficient to establish probable cause).

In United States v. Thomas, we noted that a conclusory allegation by law-enforcement that a particular house was a suspected narcotics stash house, was entitled to little (if any) weight in determining whether officers had satisfied the lower reasonable suspicion standard required to stop a vehicle leaving the house. 211 F.3d 1186, 1189-90 (9th Cir. 2000). We explained that the conclusory allegation, without any foundational facts, was akin to an anonymous tip and, consequently, was entitled to little weight. Id. at 1190.

Here, as in Thomas, Hankel's statements amount to nothing more than conclusory assertions. Hankel failed to provide any underlying facts as to why he, or any other officers, suspected the house was a "narcotics stash location." While Hankel's training and experience are factors to be considered, "it is incumbent upon the arresting or searching officer to explain the nature of his expertise or experience and how it bears upon the facts which prompted the officer to arrest or search." 2 Wayne Lafave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 3.2(c), at 45 (4th ed. 2004) (internal quotation marks omitted). Conclusory statements and a general claim of expertise will not suffice. Id.; Thomas, 211 F.3d at 1189-92.

A study suggests public sector debt will be pushed up by £100bn over next two decades by higher university fees.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- When George Zimmerman tries to convince a judge or jury that he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense, the evidence he'll be able to call on appears to be a mixed bag....

ORLANDO, Fla. — When George Zimmerman tries to convince a judge or jury that he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense, the evidence he'll be able to call on appears to be a mixed bag.

More than 200 pages of photos and eyewitness accounts released by prosecutors Thursday show Zimmerman and ...

Authorities have arrested a suspect in the case of an alleged police impersonator who is believed to have killed two motorists in Mississippi, the Tunica County Sherriff's Office said.

MADRID (AP) -- Spain's grinding economic misery will get worse this year, despite the country's request for a European financial lifeline of up to (EURO)100 billion ($125 billion) to save its banks, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Sunday....

A man accused of murdering his wife told police investigating her disappearance he suspected she was having an affair.

Infowars.com | AP recycles '68 Chicago police riot footage as NATO confab begins.

Officer saw a vehicle pull off a well-traveled road, stop, and the driver opened the hood. The officer stopped to see if the driver needed assistance and asked for the driver’s identifying information. This led to the officer finding that defendant’s DL was revoked. The fact that the officer asked for defendant’s identifying information did not necessitate a conclusion that he was conducting a criminal investigation. Further, the officer’s asking for defendant’s identifying information had the safety benefit of allowing the officer to know whom he was dealing with, should defendant attempt to harm one of the officers or flee. People v. Mains, 2012 Ill. App. LEXIS 368, 2012 IL App (2d) 110262 (May 11, 2012).

Officers had a warrant for defendant’s arrest, and his mother was found to have consented to an entry into her apartment. She said he wasn’t home and she’d call him. A cell phone rang in the back of the house, and the police went to look finding defendant going out the window. In plain view were drugs and a handgun. The entry into the apartment was valid as was looking for defendant because he was expected to be armed. State v. Craft, 2012 N.J. Super. LEXIS 73 (May 14, 2012).*

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Authorities in Mississippi said early Friday they have arrested a suspect in two fatal highway shootings that happened late at night along desolate stretches.

James D. Willie, 28, was being held on charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault and rape and would be formally charged with two ...