The Ecuadorean government will revise a controversial austerity law following unrest and a suspected coup attempt, government officials announced Saturday. The announcement came after days of unrest , during which protesting police officers fired tear gas at President Rafael Correa , surrounded the hospital at which he was being treated, and trapped him there for [...]
The US Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) convened for the first time on Friday and approved a number of documents related to its duties under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act . The FSOC, which operates within the US Department of Treasury under the direction of US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy [...]
Halliburton Energy Services and several other companies being sued in connection with April’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico filed a request on Friday seeking more time to prepare their defense, the AP reports. The motion, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana , seeks to postpone [...]
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday lodged a protest with NATO and its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) regarding air strikes that crossed into Pakistani territory. The complaint stems from an incident last week in which ISAF helicopters engaged militants following an attack on an Afghan security base in the Khost province. During the [...]
An Israeli district court on Friday rejected Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire’s request to gain entry into the country. Maguire, traveling to Israel for a conference of Nobel laureates, was arrested on Tuesday upon her arrival in Tel Aviv and informed that she was barred from entering Israel for 10 years. The ban [...]
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled Friday that a 2004 law that transferred powers from the presidency to parliament was unconstitutional, ordering the powers be restored to the president. The ruling invalidates the reforms passed at the height of the Orange revolution and strengthens the presidency now held by pro-Moscow leader Viktor Yanukovych , elected [...]
The UN on Friday released a report on war crimes and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The report, originally expected to be released in September , lists 617 of the most serious violations of human rights, including violence against children, genocide and mass rape, committed between 1993 and 2003. The [...]
US Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010 Wednesday, which, if passed would greatly change US immigration law. The bill incorporates previously proposed legislation , including the AgJOBS Act , which would allow some undocumented workers to work on US farms, the Uniting American Families Act [...]
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted resolutions Thursday establishing the mandate of a Special Rapporteur for freedom of association and assembly. The Special Rapporteur will be responsible for reporting on how nations promote freedom of association and peaceful assembly during a three-year period. In adopting the resolution, the UNHRC urged all nations to respect [...]
Dutch politician Geert Wilders said Thursday that the Netherlands will ban the burqa and other full Islamic veils as part of the government’s plan to form a minority coalition. The Liberals and Christian Democrats (CDA) must make concessions to Wilders’ anti-Islamic Freedom Party in order to gain its backing to form a minority coalition government. [...]
