At least 400 inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison have been on a hunger strike since the end of June and are being joined by prisoners in at least 10 other California prisons. Inmates of Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), a long-term isolation ward where one-third of the prison’s population is held in solitary [...]
Top Republican lawmakers on Wednesday urged US President Barack Obama to define terror suspect interrogation, detention and prosecution procedures. In a letter to the president, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Howard McKeon and other officials from the Intelligence, Judiciary, Foreign Relations, and Homeland Security Committees criticized the administration for its lack of comprehensive [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday extended settlement negotiations for an additional two months in The Authors Guild et al v. Google Inc. , a copyright suit filed in 2005 over a Google initiative to scan and catalog books to make them more accessible online. [...]
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday upheld the contempt conviction of former spokesperson Florence Hartmann . A specially appointed chamber found Hartmann guilty of contempt in 2009 for revealing confidential judicial decisions. Tuesday’s judgment reinforced that Hartmann had done irreparable damage to the ICTY’s mission: he [...]
Taiwan established an anti-corruption agency Wednesday in an effort to quell corruption among government officials. The Agency Against Corruption (AAC) aims to reduce and deter corruption , raise conviction rates for corrupt officials and protect human rights. The agency is composed of 180 members who, along with other law enforcement authorities, will handle investigations into [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Central District of California on Tuesday tentatively ruled that Toyota could appeal the ruling in a class action lawsuit filed over alleged sudden-acceleration defects. Judge James Selna denied a motion to dismiss the class action suit against Toyota in May, allowing consumers who had not experienced [...]
Serbian authorities on Wednesday arrested Goran Hadzic , the last fugitive of the original 161 sought for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Serbian President Boris Tadic announced the arrest through a press conference , stating that Serbia has fulfilled its obligations to The Hague and was not [...]
US President Barack Obama supports repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) , Press Secretary Jay Carney announced at a White House press briefing Tuesday. Carney also said that Obama supports the Respect for Marriage Act , which was introduced by Congressional Democrats in February to repeal DOMA, the 1996 federal law that defines [...]
A federal judge on Friday ordered Florida’s Dixie County Courthouse to remove the Ten Commandments monument displayed on the front steps of the courthouse. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLUFL) filed the lawsuit in early 2007, arguing that the monument violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Dixie [...]
The Philippine government has failed to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings tied to the country’s military, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced Tuesday. In a report entitled “No Justice Just Adds to the Pain: Killings, Disappearances, and Impunity in the Philippines,” HRW presents evidence indicating that the Philippine military was involved in seven murders and three [...]
