Ukraine lawmakers on Thursday passed legislation punishing by fines or arrest the blockading of public buildings, protesters wearing masks or helmets, the dissemination of Internet slander, and providing facilities or equipment for unauthorized meetings. Critics allege the laws were passed to suppress protests against President Viktor Yanukovych . The legislation passage was followed by protests [...]
The UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Thursday criticized the Vatican on the its handling of child sex abuse. During questioning in Geneva, committee member Sara Oviedo forced Vatican officials to acknowledge that the Holy See had been slow to react to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy members. [...]
A special UN event on Wednesday warned that the world must learn from the consequences of failing to respond to the events in Rwanda that preceded the genocide there 20 years ago in order to prevent such things from happening in the future. Speaking to attendees at UN Headquarters in New York, Deputy Secretary-General Jan [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called for South Sudan leaders, the African Union (AU) and the UN to support an international commission of inquiry to investigate targeted attacks on civilians based on ethnicity. Daniel Bekele, Africa director at HRW, said, “Appalling crimes have been committed against civilians for no other reason than their ethnicity,” [...]
Britain’s High Court ruled on Thursday that Google can be sued by British citizens in the UK despite Google’s arguments that the case does not fall under British jurisdiction. The company is being sued for breach of privacy by over 100 users of Apple’s Safari browser who claim that Google tracked their browsing history without [...]
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a specialized division of the International Chamber of Commerce reported on Wednesday that maritime pirate attacks have reached their lowest levels in six years, dropping 40 percent since 2011. Pottengal Mukundan, Director of the IMB, attributes the decrease in attacks to a clampdown on piracy in Somalia . Somalia experienced [...]
Egyptian voters on Thursday approved the new military-backed constitution, by a margin of over 90 percent, according to unofficial results released Thursday by individual election committees throughout the country. According to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, new constitution garnered 97.57 percent “yes” votes and 1.48 percent “no” votes with results in from 26 of Egypt’s 27 provinces. [...]
The trial of four Hezbollah members accused of perpetrating a terrorist attack that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others in 2005 began Thursday before the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) .The trial is being held in absentia as the four accused men , Salim Jamil Ayyash, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Hussein [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday rejected a challenge to health insurance subsidies available to people in states that declined to establish their own online marketplaces under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) . The suit argued that the PPACA allowed subsidies in the form [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in two cases. In McCullen v. Coakley , the court is considering a Massachusetts law that establishes “buffer zones” for abortion clinics. The buffer zone creates a protected area outside of the abortion clinic where people are not allowed to protest. The law creates a 35-foot buffer [...]
