Syria’s main opposition group on Sunday urged the UN to probe numerous massacres they say were committed during Ramadan by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad . The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (ETILAF) allege that Assad committed crimes against humanity by using ballistic missiles, toxic gas and chemical weapons. The coalition [...]
A Turkish court on Monday convicted the country’s former military chief of plotting to overthrow the government and sentenced him to life in prison. Retired general Ilker Basbug was arrested in 2012 for his alleged involvement with the Ergenekon network, a secular group suspected of planning to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) [...]
A Brazilian court on Saturday sentenced 25 police officers to lengthy prison terms for their role in the 1992 Carandiru prison massacre. Each defendant was sentenced to 624 years for the use of deadly force during the riot, which was one of the worst of its kind in Latin America, but no convicted person can [...]
A jury for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recommended Friday that three Somali pirates convicted of murdering four Americans receive life in prison sentences. The attack, which took place in 2011 approximately 40 miles off the coast of Somalia, involved 19 Somali pirates who held the Americans captive in hopes [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday urged an independent investigation into whether war crimes were committed when armed opposition groups in Syria allegedly executed dozens of captured government soldiers in Khan Al-Assal, a district in the northern province of Aleppo last month. Between July 22 and July 26, footage taken by [...]
The Obama administration on Saturday overturned a US trade panel ban on the sale of older iPads and iPhones. In June the US International Trade Commission (ITC) banned the import or sale of AT&T models of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G after finding that the devices violated a patent [...]
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos on Friday once again reiterated demands for an end to the Syrian conflict, noting the increasingly grave conditions for civilian populations and lack of access for humanitarian aid. UNICEF estimates that some 400,000 civilians have been displaced in the district of Al Waer in [...]
A federal judge blocked part of a new Wisconsin law on Friday that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, extending a preliminary injunction as a case against the law proceeds to trial. Specifically, the law requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics [...]
The US Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay an injunction that will allow for the early release of nearly 10,000 California inmates by the end of the year. The six-justice majority offered no explanation for their ruling. Three justices dissented, calling the injunction a “terrible injunction.” State officials, however, have argued that releasing the [...]
Secretary of State John Kerry announced Friday that the US will begin processing same-sex visa applications the same way opposite-sex visa applications are processed. Speaking at the US embassy in London, Kerry stated, “As long as a marriage has been performed in the jurisdiction that recognizes it, then that marriage is valid under US immigration [...]
