The constitutional court of Zimbabwe ruled Tuesday that July’s presidential elections were fair, effectively allowing President Robert Mugabe to continue his 33-year rule. This ruling is controversial because the complaint by presidential hopeful Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was withdrawn last week, citing corruption of the judicial process. However, Chief Justice [...]
The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that a North Carolina law prohibiting registered sex offenders from commercial social networking websites accessible by children, such as Facebook and Myspace, is unconstitutional. In a unanimous opinion, the court found that the law “arbitrarily burdens” registered sex offenders by preventing a wide range of communication [...]
The International Labor Organization (ILO) Maritime Labor Convention came into effect Tuesday. The international standards, originally adopted by the ILO in 2006, required ratification by a minimum of 30 ILO member states to come into force as international law, with the additional requirement that the countries ratifying the standards represent 33 percent of the world’s [...]
Egyptian authorities on Tuesday arrested Mohammed Badie, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood . Egyptian authorities ordered the arrest of Badie after escalating violence last month resulted in over 50 deaths. Badie was taken to Torah prision in Cairo, where other members of the Brotherhood and former president Mohamed Morsi are being held. His [...]
A Pakistani court on Tuesday officially charged former president Pervez Musharraf with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and facilitation of murder in the 2007 death of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto . Bhutto, who was the first prime minister of any Islamic nation, was killed at a rally addressing a large crowd of her supporters [...]
The Iraq Ministry of Justice on Monday reported the execution of 15 men and two women convicted of terrorism. The individuals were convicted under Article 4 of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law, which requires a sentence of death for any who are found to have committed a terrorist act as defined by the law. Human Rights Watch [...]
An Oklahoma County District Court judge on Monday granted an injunction of Oklahoma House Bill 2226 , a state law that requires minors to obtain a prescription for emergency contraception. HB 2226 was challenged by the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice , amongst others, on the grounds that it violates recent controversial FDA regulations that [...]
A judge for Michigan’s Barry County Circuit Court on Monday dismissed a fracking lawsuit by Michigan Land Air Water Defense (MLAWD) against the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) . MLAWD sought a declaratory ruling nullifying the MDNR auctions of mineral rights within Barry and Allegan State Game Areas and the Yankee Springs Recreation Area. [...]
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed Assembly Bill 3371 into law on Monday, banning licensed therapists from providing sexual orientation conversion services to minors. New Jersey is now the second state to ban such practices following a similar ban in California last September. Christie publicly addressed the controversial issue , deferring to medical experts that [...]
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on Sunday signed a gun safety bill that will require background checks for all gun purchases in the state as well as the reporting of all lost and stolen guns. The new law expands the state’s previous background check requirements, which covered gun purchases from licensed firearms dealers or those occurring [...]
