A court in Abruzzo, Italy, on Monday found that six Italian scientists and an ex-government official were negligent in their evaluation of the dangers posed by a 2009 earthquake that killed more than 300 people in the town of L’Aquila. Specifically, sole judge Marco Billi found that the members of the country’s Commissione Nazionale dei [...]
Former Philippines President and current Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has filed a bill seeking to allow the country’s Department of Justice to grant “medical parole” to sick inmates. In particular, the three-page Medical Parole Act of 2012 , authored by Macapagl-Arroyo and her son, Representative Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo , provides that the Board of Pardons and [...]
The South Korean government attempted to halt the distribution of anti-North Korea pamphlets across the border into North Korea by activists on Monday after threats from North Korea. North Korea threatened military action if South Korean activists carried out their plan to pass leaflets across the border via balloons. In a post on Friday to [...]
Apple defeated additional patent infringement claims made by Samsung Electronics in Japan, it was reported Saturday, overcoming Samsung’s attempt to enjoin iPhone sales in the country. The Tokyo District Court rejected Samsung’s claims that Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S infringed on Samsung patents in the areas of its smartphone application downloading technology and its [...]
Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Russian feminist rock band Pussy Riot were transferred to separate regional prisons on Saturday to serve out their two-year sentences for hooliganism and religious hatred in connection with their performance at an protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow cathedral. The regional courts, Mordovia and Perm, are [...]
International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Monday began her first official visit to Kenya with a statement that the ICC will not delay the scheduled trial of four Kenyans facing charges of crimes against humanity, even though two of the accused will be top candidates in the Kenyan elections next year. Bensouda [...]
Prosecutors investigating the Lockerbie bombing are examining evidence that may implicate acquitted Libyan Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah for allegedly working with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi who was convicted for the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. Documents obtained by Scotland on Sunday suggest the investigators are reevaluating [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Saturday granted a stay of execution for death row inmate John Errol Ferguson in order to hear arguments on his habeus corpus petition on Friday. Ferguson was found guilty of killing eight people in 1977 and two in 1978. In September, [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett on Friday asking him to veto legislation which would maintain the sentence of life without parole as an option for child offenders. According to HRW, the bill would go against the spirit of the recent US Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama, [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and League of Arab States Secretary-General Nabil El Araby on Friday called on warring parties in Syria to stop violence and order a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and urged international leaders to join their appeal. The secretaries-general directed their statement at all parties involved, but in particular [...]
