Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for stricter regulations on abortions and Caesarean births in Turkey, a Turkish television network reported Tuesday. Among his desired reforms are restricting the reasons a woman may seek an abortion, limiting the time period in which a woman may obtain a “medically necessary” abortion, and strictly regulating [...]
The UN Human Rights Council announced Wednesday that they will hold a special session this Friday to discuss the situation in Syria in light of last week’s massacre in Houla. The announcement came after a written request for the session was submitted earlier in the day by ambassadors from Qatar, Turkey, the US, Saudi Arabia, [...]
The two sons of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak are being charged with stock market fraud, the public prosecutor’s office said Wednesday. Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, along with seven others, are accused of using unfair trading practices and illegally manipulating the market. The two men, who were already incarcerated pending another trial, were not given [...]
A Bangkok criminal court on Wednesday sentenced Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of independent Internet news site Prachatai , to an eight-month suspended sentence for failing to delete defamatory comments against Thailand’s royal family. She was initially sentenced to one year in prison, but the court reduced and suspended the sentence. In addition to the sentence, she [...]
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday signed a bill authorizing the creation of an independent human rights commission in Pakistan. The new committee will be authorized to investigate human rights violations in the country and make recommendations to the government. The bill does not authorize the commission to investigate military or intelligence officials. Earlier [...]
The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Wednesday sentenced former Liberian president Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for war crimes committed during the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone . The sentence came after Trial Chamber II convicted Taylor of planning as well as aiding and abetting crimes committed by rebel forces [...]
The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday ruled that the pre-trial chamber did not err in ruling that there is not enough evidence to try Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana . Mbarushimana was allegedly tied to the murder, rape and torture of Congolese villagers by Hutu militia in 2009. He was [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday in RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v. Amalgamated Bank that debtors are not entitled to a “cramdown” plan including the sale of collateral that avoids a bank’s lien. However, the court ruled that the bank is also not entitled to credit-bid at the sale. The former was declared inequitable [...]
King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong on Tuesday denied a motion for preliminary injunction against Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna over his participation in a health care challenge. The motion brought by female citizens and the advocacy group Fuse Washington alleged that McKenna violated his ethical duties as a lawyer when he submitted a [...]
The Louisiana State Senate on Monday unanimously passed a bill strengthening Louisiana’s ban on euthanasia and assisted suicide . Both practices were already prohibited under other laws in Louisiana. The new bill amends the state’s medical consent law, stating: “A. Nothing in this Part shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve assistance to suicide, [...]
