The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of a Florida city commission’s pre-meeting prayers, in turn rejecting an atheist group’s argument that such a public forum practice illegally promoted Christianity. Although the group, Atheists of Florida, Inc. (AOF) , argued that opening the meetings of the Lakeland City [...]
Son of ousted Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Maxim Bakiyev, was sentenced to 25 years on Wednesday by a Kyrgyz court. He was convicted of entering into several energy agreements that cost Kyrgyzstan hundreds of millions of dollars and found guilty of illegally privatizing public land surrounding a resort. Maxim Bakiyev is currently being held in [...]
UK authorities’ appeal to deport radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan was dismissed on Wednesday after the Court of Appeal accepted arguments that Qatada would face testimony officials obtained via torture. Qatada is wanted in Jordan on in absentia convictions of organizing and encouraging bomb attacks in 1999 and 2000. Qatada has successfully fought [...]
An Egyptian appeals court on Wednesday overturned the November 22 decree by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi which dismissed Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud. Morsi had removed Mahmoud from office following the acquittal of some who had been charged with murdering protesters against the rule of then-president Hosni Mubarak during the uprising which brought Morsi to power. The [...]
Egyptian authorities on Tuesday extradited two former Libyan officials from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi , ex-Cairo ambassador Ali Maria, and another ex-official, Mohammed Ibrahim Gadhafi, back to their home country. Both were arrested on corruption charges a week ago with Gaddafi’s cousin Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, who was arrested at his home in central Cairo [...]
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signed into law Monday legislation requiring voters in the state present photo identification prior to voting. The governor signed two bills which established the new ID standards for elections. SB 1256 requires that voters present a photo ID that lists their address, such as a driver’s license, passport or workplace photo [...]
WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP. Our spring fund drive ends on March 31 – that’s only four and half days away! Our goal for this drive is $15,000 but we’re only 17% of the way there. We can hit 25% of our goal if we raise another $1,200 or 50% if we raise $4,800. These [...]
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple on Tuesday signed three laws, HB 1305, HB 1456 and SB 2305 , which impose the nation’s most severe restrictions on abortion. These new laws, respectively, ban abortion for the purpose of gender selection or genetic abnormalities, ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, and require that any physician [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Florida v. Jardines that an alert from a narcotics detection dog on the front porch of suspect’s house constitutes a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment . The ruling upheld the Florida Supreme Court , which held that evidence gathered pursuant to search warrant obtained based [...]
The Maryland Senate on Monday voted 29-18 to approve a bill that would substantially expand the availability of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants residing in the state. To be eligible to receive a driver’s license, the applicant must provide proof of having filed Maryland state income tax returns for the previous two years, or being [...]
