A lawyer for human rights activist Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafda said Sunday that his detention has been extended by the Bahrain government. Al-Muhafda, the acting vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) , was arrested last Friday during an unauthorized protest. This arrest came three days after the BCHR had released a report [...]

A Turkish court on Tuesday opened a trial in absentia for former Israeli military commanders accused of killing nine Turkish citizens aboard a ship attempting to pass through the Gaza blockade in 2010. The Turkish judge began the proceedings with testimony from people who were on board the flotilla, as well as from relatives of [...]

A UN independent expert on Monday urged countries to combat hate speech on the Internet , while simultaneously protecting freedom of speech. Special Rapporteur on Racism, Mutuma Ruteere told the General Assembly that an increase of hate websites inciting racial violence necessitates action. Ruteere called on governments, international bodies, private and public sector, and local [...]

A federal judge in Wisconsin on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by Apple alleging that Google Inc. subsidiary Motorola Mobility has unfair patent licensing practices. The decision was issued just hours before the trial was scheduled to start. Judge Barbara Crabb of the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin did not give a [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday struck down a Hungarian law that lowered the mandatory retirement age for judges. Hungary’s Law No LXVII of 1997 on the legal status and remuneration of judge was amended in 2011 to require all judges, prosecutors and notaries to retire at the age of 62 instead of [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments Monday in Isaacson v. Horne to consider a new Arizona abortion regulation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks unless there is a medical emergency. A group of doctors, represented by attorney Janet Crepps from the The Center for Reproductive Rights opened the [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases Monday. In Comcast v. Behrend the court heard arguments on how much judicial discretion is allowed when certifying a class for a class action lawsuit. In this case, the district court certified a class by judicial discretion, without resolving whether the plaintiff class had introduced [...]

The military hearing for a US Army sergeant accused of murdering 16 Afghan civilians in March began on Monday and is expected to last the remainder of the week. Sgt. Robert Bales was originally charged with 17 counts of murder, including women and children, in a Kandahar village, but one charge was dropped in June. [...]

Amnesty International (AI) and several other international human rights groups on Monday urged South Sudan to join the majority of UN members that have abolished the death penalty . In particular, the groups recommended that the country abandon the punishment “in law or practice by placing a moratorium on all executions” in December, the first [...]

Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani released a statement though the Pakistan Inter-Services Public Relations on Monday that any effort to undermine the military by creating a wedge between it and the Pakistani people would not be tolerated. The statement appears to be a response to the recent decision by the Supreme [...]