The Argentine Senate on Thursday voted 33-27 to legalize same-sex marriage , making Argentina the first Latin American nation to do so. The legislation, which includes adoption rights for same-sex couples, was approved after 14 hours of debate . President Cristina Fernandez has expressed her support for the bill and is expected to sign it [...]
The US House Committee on Natural Resources on Wednesday approved an amendment , as part of a broader piece of legislation that would bar new offshore drilling and gas permits to any company with a history of violating environmental or workplace safety laws. Under the amendment, any company that has, during the previous seven years, [...]
Connecticut company XPRT Ventures LLC filed suit Tuesday against eBay in the US District Court for the District of Delaware , claiming the infringement of six patents for online auctions and payment systems. According to the complaint, which also names PayPal, Bill Me Later, Shopping.com and StubHub as defendants, XPRT alleges that eBay misappropriated information [...]
Iraq’s justice minister announced Wednesday that 26 former officials in the government of Saddam Hussein have been transferred from US to Iraqi custody as US troops prepare to withdraw from the country next month. The prisoners, transferred from Camp Cropper to Kadhimiya prison in Baghdad, include former foreign minister Tariq Aziz , former interior minister [...]
The UK High Court announced Wednesday that a lawsuit, filed by former Guantanamo Bay detainees and alleging that the UK government was complicit in their torture, can proceed. The lawsuit, filed by 12 ex-detainees, alleges that British agents took part in their mistreatment while they were held in prisons in foreign countries, including Pakistan and [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Nebraska issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday preventing a new Nebraska abortion law from being enforced. The law, known as the Women’s Health Protection Act, requires physicians to evaluate patients to determine that their choice to have an abortion is voluntary and to inform the [...]
The Taipei District Court announced Wednesday that a prosecutor and three judges had been arrested on corruption charges. The three judges, all from the Taiwan High Court are believed to have accepted more than NT $5 million (USD $155,000) offered to them by Ho Chi-hui in return for a not-guilty verdict granted in May. The [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue on Tuesday condemned an Italian bill that would restrict the use of wiretaps and criminalize the reporting of wiretap transcripts by the news media. La Rue urged the Italian government to either abolish or substantially revise the bill, warning that if it is adopted in [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday overturned a decision that granted the habeas corpus petition of Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed al-Adahi. In reversing the decision, the appellate court held that the district court erred in examining the evidence against al-Adahi individually, considering and rejecting each piece of evidence [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) announced Tuesday that Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Odaini was transferred to his homeland of Yemen after a federal court ordered his release . In his ruling ordering Odaini’s release, Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. of the US District Court for the District of Columbia , ruled that the US government [...]
