The Rhode Island House of Representatives approved a civil union bill Thursday by a vote of 62 to 11 . The bill was voted out of committee earlier this week and is modeled after similar legislation in Illinois, Delaware and Hawaii , granting all rights of marriage to same-sex couples. While in the House, several [...]

A coalition of more than 30 rights groups and development organizations in Cambodia issued an open letter Thursday urging the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to embrace a greater degree of transparency. In the letter, the groups outline “grave concerns” that the highly classified nature of Case 3 and Case 4 betrays [...]

The European Commission (EC) threatened on Thursday to send 10 member states to the European Court of Justice if they do not fully implement the Third Capital Requirements Directive 2010/76/EU . The deadline for implementation was January 1, but Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain have yet to implement any measures of the directive, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Thursday upheld the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decision to renew the operating license of the nation’s oldest nuclear power plant. The court held the NRC did not abuse its discretion in renewing the license for another 10 years for the 40-year-old New Jersey plant. The [...]

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday signed into law a bill designed to force French rail company SNCF to disclose its participation in the Holocaust to receive a state rail contract. SNCF allegedly transported 76,000 Jews and other prisoners from Paris to the German border from 1942 to 1944. Since their American subsidiary, Keolis America [...]

The trial of accused Nazi Sandor Kepiro esumed on Thursday after tests proving Kepiro was mentally capable of proceeding. After Kepiro said he could not understand Judge Bela Varga earlier this month, Varga ordered mental and hearing tests for the defendant. Kepiro returned to the court with special headphones to enable his hearing. Kepiro, 97, [...]

Bahrain’s Lower National Safety Court on Thursday sentenced nine citizens to 20 years in prison for kidnapping a police officer . The decision was announced by the government-owned Bahrain News Agency, without details of the charges or the incident. Among the convicted was prominent Shiite cleric Mohammed Habib al-Saffaf. The Bahrain Youth Society for Human [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) sent a letter to the Bangladesh government Thursday praising its International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to prosecute those responsible for atrocities committed during the 1971 struggle for independence, but urged the government to ensure that the trials are carried out in accordance with international human rights expectations. The letter, sent to Bangladesh [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit by Argentine citizens can proceed against Daimler AG for the actions of Mercedes-Benz Argentina during the nation’s 1976-1983 “Dirty War” . The suit, which was dismissed by the US District Court for the Northern District of California in 2005 due to [...]

At least 840 people were killed, and more than 6,000 were injured during the Egyptian revolution to oust former president Hosni Mubarak , according to an Amnesty International (AI) report released Thursday. AI argues that Egypt must do more to deal with the victims of human rights violations the organization claims were perpetrated by Egypt’s [...]