The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held Thursday in a 2-1 opinion that state rules on participation in Ohio's primary elections make it prohibitive for minority parties to be included on the ballot. The court ruled that the requirement that parties must file petitions with signatures 120 days before the election "have a negative [...]
Leading Thursday's international brief, international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that the Sudanese government has entered a prolonged campaign of randomly bombing civilian locations in the Darfur region and asked the UN Security Council to initiate sanctions against key Sudanese government officials. Under Resolution 1591 , any entity or individual authorizing or practicing [...]
The Bush administration has been "disappointed" with the work of the newly formed UN Human Rights Council , according to US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mark Lagon during his remarks Wednesday at a hearing of the US House of Representatives International Relations Subcommittee on Africa . The new rights council was created earlier this [...]
The Defense Department's top military lawyers testified Thursday before the US House Armed Services Committee , urging Congress to reject White House proposals that would keep some evidence from suspected terrorists who face prosecutions. The Bush administration submitted the Military Commissions Act of 2006 Wednesday, which among other things calls for classified information to be [...]
The European Court of Justice ruled Thursday that Great Britain's rest period guidelines for workers are not in compliance with European Union law which mandates minimum daily and weekly breaks. Member countries of the EU are obligated to ensure workers receive 11 consecutive hours of rest in every 24-hour period and a 24-hour rest period [...]
The Florida Supreme Court plans to analyze newly proposed rules that would stop the practice of sealing certain court cases from public view in a system that Chief Justice Fred Lewis said has "gone awry" Wednesday. A Miami Herald investigation uncovered over 400 hidden negligence, malpractice, divorce, and criminal cases involving judges, lawyers, politicians, businessmen, [...]
An Indonesian court Thursday sentenced Islamic militant Dwi Widiarto to 18 years in prison for his part in the October 2005 bombings of three restaurants in Bali which killed 26 people. Widiarto was charged with videotaping the three suicide bombers and meeting on three occasions with the suspected coordinator of the attacks, Noordin Mohammed Top [...]
Amnesty International on Thursday criticized Colombia for allowing attacks on human rights defenders, calling on the international community to provide more support for local activists in Colombia . In a new report released Thursday, Amnesty blamed the Colombian government for facilitating hostilities against human rights activists and highlighted an apparently coordinated effort by Colombian security [...]
Rights activists on Thursday called for more information from the US government regarding secret CIA prisons where high-value terror suspects have been detained, saying that though US President George Bush's acknowledgement Wednesday of the prisons' existence was welcome, more information needs to be disclosed. Manfred Nowak , the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture , called [...]
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday vetoed the Free Curriculum Act , a bill designed to add protections against discrimination in schools by prohibiting teaching or textbooks that "reflect adversely" on students based on their sexual orientation. The bill passed both the state Senate and Assembly last month. Schwarzenegger argued that existing law already "provides [...]
