The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on Thursday welcomed Pakistan’s “declared will” to address the issue of enforced disappearances in the country but concluded that “serious challenges remain” . Specifically, the Working Group, made up of independent experts, acknowledged the security challenges facing the Pakistan government but used the UN’s 1992 Declaration [...]
A judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday denied a request for a temporary restraining order to remove a controversial anti-Islam film on YouTube that has sparked violent protests throughout the Muslim world. Actress Cindy Lee Garcia brought the claim on grounds of fraud, slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the [...]
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution calling for Ukraine to release former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison. The resolution condemns President Viktor Yanukovych for his role in Tymoshenko’s “politically motivated imprisonment” and calls for her immediate release. The resolution was introduced by US Senators James Inhofe (R-OK) and [...]
A German court on Thursday found that Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility had infringed on Microsoft Corp. patents and issued an injunction barring the sale of several Motorola products in Germany and the US. The technology in question is related to keyboard communication with various applications installed on phones and other portable devices. In order to [...]
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt on Wednesday filed an amended complaint in the state’s lawsuit challenging the federal health care law. In the new complaint, Pruitt maintained the state’s challenge to the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and additionally challenged new IRS regulations that were put in place to [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of South Dakota on Wednesday ruled that South Dakota’s ban on the use of tobacco in prisons infringes on the religious rights of Native American inmates. The Native American Council of Tribes (NACT), along with two individual plaintiffs, brought suit under the Religious Land Use [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments Wednesday regarding the constitutionality of a voter-approved California law that requires police officers to take DNA samples of arrested persons suspected of committing a felony. Sitting en banc, the judges questioned California Attorney General Kamala Harris , raising concerns that the law may be [...]
Samsung announced Thursday that it will add the iPhone5 to its ongoing patent infringement lawsuit against Apple . Samsung filed a document in the US District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that it anticipates that the iPhone 5, like its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, will infringe on Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy [...]
Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday endorsed by royal decree a law that requires Jordanian news websites to register with the government and obtain licenses. The law, which is part of a series of amendments to the Press and Publications Law of 1998 , also grants government authorities the ability to block and censor the [...]
A Serbian war crimes court on Wednesday convicted 11 former members of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) of war crimes committed in Kosovo in 1999, acquitting six others. The 11 convicted were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for crimes including detaining and torturing 147 people and the torture and rape of [...]
