The Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) Tuesday called for a judicial investigation into the circumstances surrounding the passage of a public referendum to adopt a new constitution. The group released a report that says it has evidence authorities used the state machinery to influence the referendum on the country’s new constitution, calling for an immediate [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed support Tuesday for Senegal’s decision not to send former dictator Hissene Habre back to Chad, where he is wanted for war crimes. She stressed, though, that Habre should not be expected to live with impunity in Senegal, which reversed its decision Sunday to send Habre back [...]
The French National Assembly on Tuesday voted 482 to 27 to authorize France’s continued participation in NATO operations in Libya. The military intervention began on March 19 in response to violent reactions from Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi after pro-democracy protests erupted February 15, 2011, in the eastern city of Benghazi. A 2008 reform measure requires [...]
An Egyptian court on Tuesday convicted former prime minister Ahmed Nazif and two Cabinet officials of corruption and sentenced them to various prison terms. Nazif was sentenced to one year , while former interior minister Habib el Adly, who is already serving a 12-year prison sentence, was sentenced to five years. Former finance minister Yousef [...]
Apple filed a complaint against HTC Friday with the US International Trade Commission (USITC) for patent infringement related to scrolling and touchscreen features. HTC denied this claim. This is the second suit that Apple has brought against HTC. Last year, Apple filed suits in the US District Court for the District of Delaware and with [...]
Five Somali men went on trial Tuesday in a Dutch court on charges of maritime piracy related to hijacking a South African yacht and kidnapping its crew. The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service spokesman, Wim De Bruin, said the Somalis were between 20 and 30 years old and could face up to 15 years for “sea [...]
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a bill on Tuesday calling for, among other penalties, chemical castration of individuals convicted of sexual offenses against children. The bill, which seeks to deter such crimes, was sent to the State Duma , the lower house of Parliament, for further debate. Medvedev first proposed that the chemical castration procedure [...]
Gay rights group Lambda Legal filed a petition for writ of certiorari Monday with the US Supreme Court to review Adar v. Smith , involving a same-sex couple who want both their names on the birth certificate of an adopted child. Though adopted in New York, the child was born in Louisiana, where the couple [...]
Joseph Schaeffer, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Class of 2012, is spending the summer working for a firm specializing in energy law. He writes on Marcellus exploration and the regulation of hydraulic fracturing, specifically considering the implications of Pittsburgh’s decision to ban the practice at the municipal level… The practice of hydraulic fracturing, commonly [...]
The US is violating UN laws governing torture investigations by insisting on monitoring conversations with an imprisoned army private, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez said Tuesday. Pfc. Bradley Manning is accused of leaking a controversial classified video of a 2007 US helicopter strike in Iraq and classified State Department documents on Wikileaks last [...]
