Former Philippines president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to corruption charges before a special anti-graft court in the Philippines. The corruption charges stem from a government contract that Arroyo signed with a Chinese telecommunications company called ZTE Corporation . A Philippines congressional probe in 2007 found the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday rejected the government’s broad reading of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) . This decision directly contradicts the rulings of three other appeals courts that did allow for a broader reading of the law. Writing for the 9-2 majority, Chief Justice Alex Kozinski [...]

National gay rights advocacy group Lambda Legal on Tuesday filed suit on behalf of eight same-sex couples against the state of Nevada claiming that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violates their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. Many of the couples, including two women that have been together for 41 years, [...]

The Arizona House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday that bans abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy, with an exception carved out only for medical emergencies. In addition to banning abortions after 20 weeks, the bill imposes other restrictions. It requires a woman seeking an abortion to receive an ultrasound 24 hours before [...]

A panel of judges for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments on Tuesday over the constitutionality of new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations requiring cigarette packaging and advertisements to display more prominent graphic health warning labels . A federal judge issued a permanent injunction last month [...]

A civil rights activist on Monday filed suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to challenge the state’s “No Duty to Retreat” law , a piece of legislation that he believes is too vague and may lead to bias-based killings of minorities. The lawsuit, filed by Rev. Markel Hutchins, finds [...]

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court on Tuesday effectively suspended the work of the 100-member panel responsible for drafting the country’s new constitution after ruling in favor of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the formation of the panel. The lawsuit was filed by a number of prominent Egyptian lawyers challenging the process by which the panel [...]

The Malaysian parliament is considering a new law that would replace the Internal Security Act of 1960 (ISA) . The new law, introduced on Tuesday, will significantly limit the time period for which a person can be detained by the police without trial from an indefinite period to a maximum of 28 days. Within the [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday criticized the government of Thailand for granting legal immunity to officials who allegedly violated human rights during an outbreak of political violence in 2010. In the press release, HRW claimed that the Thai government’s “political reconciliation” proposals advance the partisan aims of various Thai political parties at the expense [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a letter Sunday intended for militia leaders in the Libyan town of Misrata, warning of possible criminal charges for orders which amount to “crimes against humanity.” The group claims that, following the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi, approximately 3,000 people from the nearby town of Tawergha continue to be indiscriminately incarcerated [...]