The Parliament of the Republic of Angola approved a new constitution on Thursday that would end the popular election of the president, despite the refusal of opposition party UNITA to take part in the vote. The new constitution replaces an interim constitution that had been in place since 1975. It provides for the appointment of [...]
A Moscow court on Thursday rejected an appeal of a lower court ruling that denied recognition of a marriage between two women. The couple, Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shepitko, applied for a marriage license in March, but were refused by the registry. The women appealed to the Tverskoi District Court in Moscow, arguing that nothing [...]
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, US Supreme Court, January 21, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on corporate campaign spending.
French police on Wednesday arrested alleged war criminal Sosthene Munyemana in Bordeaux, acting on a Rwandan extradition warrant. Munyemana, a Rwandan doctor who has worked in a French hospital for eight years, is accused of war crimes related to the 1994 Rwandan genocide . He was later released on bail while awaiting a court date. [...]
Amin Mohamed Durrani, a member of the "Toronto 18" , was released Thursday after pleading guilty in a Canadian court Wednesday to participating in and assisting a terrorist group. Durrani's plea , which came as a surprise to many, included an apology and a denunciation of terrorism. As part of the plea agreement, Durrani was [...]
The North Korean government is holding approximately 200,000 dissidents in six prison camps spread throughout the country, according to a report released Wednesday by the South Korean government's National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) . According to the report, punishments for dissidents have increased significantly for common offenses such as attempting to escape. The [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday decided 5-4 in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to ease restrictions on political campaign spending by corporations. The Court was asked to consider Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) , which prohibits corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures [...]
A federal employee filed suit on Wednesday against the federal government seeking to add her same-sex spouse to her family health insurance plan. Lambda Legal brought the suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Karen Golinski, a federal court employee who was married in California during the [...]
The Italian Senate approved a bill Wednesday that aims to shorten the trial and appeals process by putting strict time limits on its duration. The legislation would limit the three stages of a case – trial, initial appeal, and final appeal – to between 6.5 and 10 years depending on the crime, and cases that [...]
A Russian journalist died in a Siberian hospital on Wednesday from injuries he received during a police beating nearly two weeks ago, according to local investigators. Konstantin Popov, an economics writer for a Russian newspaper, was arrested for drunkenness on January 4 and taken to prison , where police officer Alexei Mitayev allegedly tortured and [...]
