Washington voters have narrowly approved Referendum 71 (R-71) , expanding the state's domestic partnership law, according to results Thursday. R-71 was a ballot measure that asked Washington residents to decide the fate of the state's 2009 domestic partnership law , which has been nicknamed the "everything but marriage law," as it affords domestic partners all [...]
David Cortman : "Over the last several years, the government has increasingly restricted pro-life speech, particularly when it occurs on public sidewalks outside abortion clinics. These restrictions are, at best, highly suspect under the First Amendment – and, at worst, completely unconstitutional. And that was no less the case in the most recent decision from [...]
The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution giving Israel and Palestine three months to conduct independent investigations into possible war crimes committed during last winter's Gaza conflict . The General Assembly voted 114-18 with 44 abstentions expressing support for the Goldstone Report , the result of a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) fact-finding [...]
The US Senate voted 54-45 Thursday to defeat an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have prevented Guantanamo Bay detainees accused of involvement in 9/11 from being tried in federal courts. The amendment was proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in response to a letter opposing federal court trials, signed by families of 9/11 [...]
The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers on Thursday unanimously reached an agreement on rules to increase competition between telecommunications providers and protect the consumer rights of Internet and mobile phone users. The agreement on the European Union (EU) Telecoms Reform package was reached after intense negotiations by the conciliation committee, which was arranged [...]
An official from the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission on Friday called for a delay of the January 16 parliamentary elections, after the Iraqi Parliament remained at an impasse over updating a controversial provincial election law . Electoral commission chief Faraj al-Haidari told state media that it would be impossible to organize elections by January [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday set the trial date for former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo for April 27. The trial date was set to give the defense six months of preparation from the date the Office of the Prosecutor fulfills its disclosure obligations, in compliance with the ICC [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham (US Army, ret.), formerly assigned to the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants and the first officer to publicly criticize the Combatant Status Review Tribunals at Guantanamo, says the US Senate has acted appropriately in rejecting an appropriations amendment offered by Senator [...]
Stephan Kinsella : "A recent lawsuit filed by Nokia against Apple alleges that the iPhone infringes 10 of Nokia's patents. Nokia is probably "seeking between $200 and $400 million in damages from Apple," which JURIST characterizes as "a relatively low amount to seek from a company that expects revenues…of over $11 billion this year." It [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Thursday sentenced former director of the Rwanda tea industry Michel Bagaragaza to eight years in prison on charges of complicity in genocide . As director general of OCIR-Tea , Bagaragaza was accused of training, funding, and arming the Interahamwe , a Hutu militia responsible for the deaths [...]
