The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday finally agreed on a controversial detainee provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 that governs the handling and prosecuting of suspected al Qaeda detainees. The provision, which was approved by a 26-0 vote , allows the military to have complete custody and control over terror suspects [...]
The Massachusetts legislature passed a bill Tuesday night that will protect transgender people in housing, credit and the workplace, as well as including them under hate crime protections. The bill passed the House by a vote of 115-37 and the Senate by a vote of 95-56 and was sent to be signed by Governor Deval [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and EG Justice claimed Tuesday that Equatorial Guinea’s recent referendum on constitutional reforms was rife with voter fraud . The referendum , which was approved with near-unanimous support, removed the age limit for presidents and created a vice president position, apparently allowing current President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to name his son [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday filed a brief in its appeal to the Montana Supreme Court arguing that denying partnership benefits to same-sex couples violates the Montana state constitution . The ACLU opined that a district judge’s April dismissal of a lawsuit by six same-sex couples in Donaldson and Guggenheim v. State [...]
A panel of judges from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday ordered the appointment of a medical expert to conduct a medical examination and issue a report on the physical condition of former Serbian general and alleged war criminal Ratko Mladic . The order was issued in response to Mladic’s [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday called on Egypt’s military prosecutors to release Alaa Abd El Fattah , a blogger and activist who engaged in protests and accused the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) of committing abuses, such as using military trials for civilians. He was charged with incitement and theft of a military [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday filed a brief in the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit urging the court to strike down Alabama’s immigration law . The DOJ filed its brief in response to a federal judge’s September 28 ruling that allowed the state to enforce a provision that makes [...]
Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Tuesday said he will allow former president Alfonso Portillo to be extradited to the US for trial. The charges against Portillo in the US stem from accusations of his involvement in money laundering and the embezzlement of $1.5 million in foreign donations from Taiwan, which were to be used to [...]
Prosecutors with Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICTB) Monday filed an application for formal charges against the detained leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) , alleging crimes against humanity committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 . If the application is approved, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury will be formally charged with directly and indirectly contributing [...]
The Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday voted against hearing amendments that would have effectively freed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko by fining her rather than imposing a criminal sentence for the financial crimes she was convicted of last month. However, 268 members of parliament passed a presidential law “humanizing” economic crimes , but eliminated provisions favoring [...]
