Acting head of the EU delegation in Mali, Bertrand Soret, on Tuesday met with the leader of last week’s military coup urging a quick return to constitutional order in the country. President Amadou Toumani Toure was removed from office after Malian soldiers took control of the government, announcing the suspension of the constitution and a [...]
An organization composed of atheists and agnostics on Monday filed suit against Pennsylvania representatives over a state House resolution that declares 2012 as “The Year of the Bible,” asserting that the law violates the principle of separation of church and state. Specifically, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) , a Wisconsin-based “association of free thinkers,” [...]
The Georgia State Senate approved legislation on Monday that eases the restrictions on abortion imposed by a bill passed by the Georgia House of Representatives earlier in March. The House bill banned women from obtaining an abortion five months into pregnancy . The amended Senate bill loosened the House bill’s restrictions by permitting women to [...]
The referral chamber of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Monday transferred the case of Charles Sikubwabo to the High Court of Rwanda. The decision was based on ICTR prosecutors’ request in November for the referral pursuant to Rule 11 bis of the Procedure and Evidence, which authorizes the transfer of cases [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Tuesday asked EU member states to reconsider their involvement in the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) extraordinary rendition program of forced transfer and secret detention. During a hearing before the European Parliament (EP) , the group suggested that the EU member nations must work harder to investigate their own roles in [...]
The number of worldwide executions increased from 2010 to 2011 , while the number of recorded death sentences decreased, according to an annual death penalty report published Tuesday by Amnesty International (AI) . There were 676 executions globally in 2011, with 18,750 people currently sentenced to death. Although three fewer countries used capital punishment last [...]
The Tokyo District Court has ordered Google Inc. to remove certain search terms that a Japanese man has claimed violate his privacy. The plaintiff, whose name has not been released, petitioned the Tokyo court to order Google to remove his name from its auto-complete search function, which prompts users with suggested search terms. The man [...]
The US Supreme Court denied certiorari Monday in Fields v. Smith , allowing a lower court decision that transgender hormone therapy is a medically necessary procedure to stand. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found the Inmate Sex-Change Prevention Act (Act 105) , a 2005 Wisconsin law, was unconstitutional under the Eighth [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Monday in MBZ v. Clinton that a citizen’s ability to list Israel as a place of birth on a passport is not a political question , but remanded the case for a ruling specifically on the issue. The US State Department argued that this question was political because it [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in Credit Suisse Securities LLC v. Simmonds that normal statute of limitations tolling applies to insider trading cases. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 states that the statute of limitations begins “more than two years after the date such was realized.” The court found for an interpretation of [...]
