A Milan appeals court on Wednesday upheld the tax fraud conviction of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi , affirming his four-year sentence. He was convicted in October on charges that his media empire Mediaset purchased television rights for US movies through offshore companies and falsely declared the costs on its taxes. The appeals court [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged the Egyptian government on Wednesday to ensure that a draft law on civil society organizations does not give authorities the ability to crack down on such groups. Pillay expressed concern that if the law places significant constraints on civil society organizations, it would undermine the cause [...]
The Louisiana Supreme Court decided 6-1 on Tuesday to strike down a law which funds school tuition vouchers for private schools. The court held that the law’s diversion of funds from the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) to non-public schools violated Article VIII, Section 13(B) of the Louisiana Constitution, which requires the state to allocate funds [...]
The Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) war crimes court on Tuesday acquitted former Bosnian Serb prime minister Gojko Klickovic of war crimes charges. Klickovic and another Bosnian Serb official, Mladen Drljaca, were on trial for a second time accused of ordering attack in which civilians were killed and unlawfully imprisoning other civilians during the 1992-1995 Bosnian [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Monday upheld a lower court ruling blocking enforcement of a Florida law that denies government contracts to companies that do business in Cuba or Syria. The law was challenged last year by Odebrecht Construction , a Brazilian company that would be affected by the legislation. [...]
A human rights mechanism took effect Sunday that will allow a UN committee to review complaints from people or groups who have exhausted every option for justice in their own country regarding economic, social and cultural rights violations. The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Protocol) requires that after [...]
German authorities on Monday arrested a 93-year-old man for allegedly serving as a guard at Auschwitz and assisting in the mass murder carried out at the death camp. Hans Lipschis, who was deported from the US in 1983 for lying about his Nazi affiliations, has acknowledged being assigned to an SS guard unit, but maintains [...]
The US Senate approved a bill on Monday that would subject online shopping, a traditionally tax-free frontier, to state sales taxes. The law currently maintains that retailers must have a physical presence in the state to collect sales taxes. Thus, many Internet retailers have an advantage with tax-free online sales. Matthew Shay, president and CEO [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) cannot require businesses to post a notice in the workplace about employees’ rights to unionize. In 2011 the NLRB issued a regulation requiring employers to post their employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act [...]
The Supreme Court of California ruled unanimously Monday that local governments may outlaw medical marijuana dispensaries, upholding a ban enacted by the city of Riverside in 2010. The court concluded that California’s medical marijuana statutes, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (CUA) and Medical Marijuana Program (MMP) do not preempt a local ban on facilities [...]
