Members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed Palestinian terror suspects in defiance of a 2006 Israeli Supreme Court ruling on targeted killings, according to Haaretz Wednesday. The 2006 ruling set up guidelines for targeted killings which include a direction that if possible, suspects should be arrested, and that "every effort must be made [...]
Russia's Federation Council , the upper house of parliament, voted 144-1 on Wednesday to approve amendments to the Russian Constitution that would extend presidential terms from four to six years and terms for members of the Duma , or lower house, from four to five years. The Duma passed the amendments last week, after expediting [...]
The Czech Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously that the European Union (EU) reform pact formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon is consistent with the Czech Constitution . Members of the Civic Democratic Party of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek had asked the court to review the constitutional compatibility of the Treaty prior to its [...]
Greenlanders have voted for increased autonomy from Denmark in a national referendum, according to results released Wednesday. The referendum's "Self Rule" plan gives Greenland natives control over the country's courts , police, and coast guard, and recognizes Greenlandic as the island's official language. The plan also gives the country more control over its oil reserves [...]
The Jamaican parliament on Tuesday voted 34-15 , with 10 abstentions, to resume the use of the death penalty. Advocates for the measure cited the country's extremely high murder rate as justification for resuming executions. Opponents of the practice, including Jamaicans for Justice executive director Carolyn Gomes, have argued that the country should increase efforts [...]
A Florida trial court judge on Tuesday ruled that a Florida statute preventing same-sex couples from adopting children is unconstitutional, allowing a Florida petitioner and his partner to adopt two children previously in his foster care. Judge Cindy Lederman of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida found that the 1977 statute violated the equal protection [...]
The Moscow City Court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court's decision not to legally rehabilitate captured Polish officers executed in 1940 during the Katyn massacre , in which more than 20,000 Polish Army reservists, academics and politicians were killed in the Katyn Forest in present-day Belarus, as well as other locations. Lawyers for the victims [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned of possible war crimes being committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a new report released Tuesday. The rights group claims that since disputed 2006 elections , approximately 500 people have been killed by Congolese security forces, and about 1,000 more have been detained and possibly tortured. The 96-page [...]
Craig McClure : "The International AIDS Society strongly urges the government of Papua, Indonesia to discard its proposed plans to insert microchips into "sexually aggressive" HIV-positive people in the province. Passing such a law into practice would be an infringement of basic human rights, and will in fact increase the rate of new infections within [...]
The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases Tuesday. In United States v. Denedo , the Court will decide whether a military appellate court has jurisdiction to entertain a petition for a writ of error coram nobis filed by a former service member to review a final court-martial conviction. The case involves a Nigerian [...]
