A Moscow court on Monday delayed an appellate hearing for three members of the Russian feminist activist group Pussy Riot after band member Ekaterina Samutsevich unexpectedly fired her lawyer. The move led prosecutors to accuse the defense of causing deliberate delays. However defense lawyer Nikolai Polozov said that Samutsevich may have made the decision due [...]

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JURIST Columnist Charles C. Jalloh of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law examines allegations made by Alternate Judge El Hadji Malick Sow at the end of Charles Taylor’s trial and argues for the establishment of an independent, fact-finding commission to promote transparency and public confidence in the Special Court for Sierra Leone… Introduction On [...]

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UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation Catarina de Albuquerque on Friday applauded a new California law creating a right to safe drinking water. Assemblymember Mike Eng sponsored the legislation, which declares “the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, [...]

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Egyptian Defence Minister General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday ordered a reduced sentence for a group of military officers who took part in opposition protests in April 2011. There were 22 officers, known as the April 8 Officers, arrested for their participation in protests in support of the revolution and against the Supreme Council of the [...]

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Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies approved a bill after 14 hours of debate on Saturday that provides for a broad range of reforms to Mexico’s labor market. The bill seeks to improve the transparency of Mexico’s trade unions and make labor regulations more flexible. The bill was a bipartisan effort between the conservative outgoing National Action [...]

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Canadian citizen Omar Khadr was transferred to Canada from Guantanamo Bay early Saturday morning to serve out the rest of his prison sentence under the authority of the Correctional Service of Canada . Khadr pleaded guilty to murdering US Sergeant First Class Christoper Speer, an Army medic, as well as charges of conspiracy and spying, [...]

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A judge for the US District Court of the District of Columbia on Friday remanded a rule that would have limited positions on derivatives for 28 commodities, saying that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) must resolve ambiguities to determine if it has authority to make the rule. The rule, promulgated by the CFTC [...]

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Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies expressed initial approval Friday for a labor reform bill that seeks to improve the transparency of Mexico’s trade unions and make labor regulations more flexible. The bill was a bipartisan effort between the conservative outgoing National Action Party (PAN) and the more liberal incoming Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) . The bill [...]

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