Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) , a Roman Catholic broadcasting network, filed a suit on Monday in federal court to challenge the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) provision that requires employers to include contraception and abortion-inducing drugs in their employees’ health care plans. The [...]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that Israel will participate in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) review of its human rights record, ending an 18-month boycott. All members of the UN are expected to undergo this review every four years to assess the state’s human rights situation. Israel, which has repeatedly claimed that [...]
The US Attorney for the District of New Jersey filled charges Monday against a UK national for allegedly hacking into thousands of computer systems operated by the US government. The accused, Lauri Love and three unnamed co-conspirators are accused of infiltrating the computer systems of numerous US government agencies including the US Missile Defense Agency, [...]
The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) asked the court Saturday to set aside their decision earlier this month allowing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta not to be present for his whole trial on charges of crimes against humanity. The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has requested Trial Chamber V(b) to either reconsiders its decision [...]
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Monday condemned the recent attack on civilians in south-eastern Afghan province of Ghazni that killed 19 individuals. The attack used an improvised explosive device (IED) to target a bus, filled with mostly women and children, that was returning from a wedding ceremony. Jan Kubis, head of UNAMA, [...]
Nations in the Middle East and North Africa are failing to provide protections for domestic workers, according to a joint report issued by three human rights organizations on Monday. The report was co-authored by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Domestic Workers’ Network and the International Trade Union Confederation . In the press release accompanying [...]
An appeals court in Kuwait on Monday affirmed a 10-year prison sentence against Hamad al-Naqi, a commentator on Twitter for posts deemed offensive to Islam, according to rights activist Nawaf al-Handel. Al-Naqi was originally sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2012 for posting insulting and defaming comments about the Prophet Muhammad and the [...]
US Ambassador to Spain, James Costos, was summoned by the Spanish Foreign Ministry Monday to discuss recent reports that the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on more than 60 million phone calls made in Spain in the span of December 2012 to January 2013. The original report was put out by Spanish newspaper El [...]
A Bahrain appellate court on Sunday reduced the prison sentences of two police officers convicted of torturing and murdering a detainee after opposition protests in March 2011. The lower court sentenced the officers to seven years in prison in December, but the appellate court reportedly reduced the sentences to three years. The officers were convicted [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food , Olivier De Schutter, on Friday praised the international community’s collective adoption of laws, policies and strategies further entrenching the right to food over the past decade. De Schutter emphasized in his final report to the UN General Assembly that many nations have prioritized nutrition as a [...]
