The office of the Maryland Attorney General released an opinion Thursday stating that same-sex couples can obtain marriage licenses as soon as Governor Martin O’Malley formally proclaims the results of this month’s election, which he is expected to do next week. Attorney General Douglas Gansler’s opinion came in response to questions from circuit court clerks [...]
Egypt’s Islamist assembly members hurriedly approved a draft constitution on Friday without the participation of liberal or Christian members, raising concerns among many human rights organizations such as Amnesty International (AI) . The approved constitution seeks to uphold the “principles of Islamic Law.” According to AI, the document’s language “ignores the rights of women, restricts [...]
A spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday that Pillay has sent a letter to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi urging him to reconsider a recent decree expanding presidential powers. Pillay worries that the Constitutional Declaration, while a welcome effort towards reaching out to the judiciary and political parties, has the [...]
UN officials urged countries on Wednesday to implement national policies that will end violence against women after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke at an event commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Ban stressed the importance of countries adopting national legislation to combat violence against women and girls in addition to denouncing [...]
A Netherlands court ruled on Wednesday to ban certain Samsung Electronics smartphones that infringe on Apple patents. The court ordered Samsung to pay Apple 100,000 euros for every day that it violates the court’s ruling. The court also ordered Samsung to pay damages to Apple based on the amount it receives through sales. The amount [...]
A French appeals court on Thursday absolved Continental Airlines of blame and overturned the manslaughter conviction against one of its mechanics in relation to the Air France Concorde jet crash that killed 113 people just outside of Paris in 2000. Although the original ruling found that a piece of metal that fell off of the [...]
The Italian government on Wednesday announced that it has appealed a recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that the country violated the rights of a couple with cystic fibrosis by preventing them from screening in vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos. The couple, who already have one child with cystic fibrosis, brought suit [...]
The Polish Supreme Court for the first time on Wednesday declared that same-sex partners living together will retain the same legal standing as heterosexual couples in regard to taking over a lease if their romantic partner with whom they were cohabiting should die. The court decision resulted from a request by a lower appeals court [...]
The military judge presiding over the case of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning , who is accused of leaking confidential documents to WikiLeaks , accepted on Thursday the terms of a partial guilty plea put forward by Manning. The decision by judge Col. Denise R. Lind does not bind the prosecution to accept the terms or [...]
Two well-site supervisors and one former executive of British Petroleum (BP) pleaded not guilty in US federal court on Tuesday to criminal charges stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill . The two supervisors, Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, are each charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of 11 workers during the [...]
