The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of a Georgia death row inmate who claimed racial bias in the jury selection process. In Foster v. Chatman the court held that the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision that petitioner Timothy Foster failed to show purposeful discrimination was clearly erroneous. The case involves a black defendant and [...]
The Greek Parliament on Sunday approved the latest round of austerity measures necessary to secure European bailout funds. The measures, approved by 153 of parliament’s 300 members, include raising sales tax and creating a state privatization fund. The vote comes just days before a eurozone meeting expected to approve the next round of bailout funds [...]
Voters in Tajikistan on Sunday approved changes to the country’s constitution that will allow President Emomali Rahmon to rule indefinitely, officials said Monday. Voters approved amendments to remove presidential term limits, lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 30 and ban religiously based political parties. The first provision allows Rakhmon, 63, to [...]
US Secretary of State John Kerry offered support to Myanmar’s newly democratic government Sunday and urged the country to push more democratic reform and address human rights issues. Though Myanmar is no longer under military rule, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has stated that the military will continue to hold seats in parliament until the [...]
A Canadian federal judge on Saturday ruled in favor of deporting a Gatineau man to Rwanda to face trial for suspected war crimes committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide . Henri Jean-Claude Seyoboka, a former soldier who joined the fight against the Rwandan Patriotic Front, came to Canada in 1995 seeking refugee status yet failed [...]
Singapore police officials on Friday announced the hanging death of Jabing Kho, hours after the High Court of Singapore denied his final appeal for clemency. Jabing was sentenced to death in 2010 for his part in the murder of a construction worker he assaulted with a piece of wood. He had exhausted multiple appeals and [...]
US President Barack Obama signed a bill into law Friday that would remove terms such as “Negro” and “Oriental” from federal law in an effort to modernize racial language. The bill seeks not only to replace these terms with African-American and Asian-American, but to also redefine minorities in legislation. Minorities were previously defined as “Negro, [...]
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey on Friday advanced an amendment to the constitution to strip members of parliament of their immunity privileges. The assembly voted on the measure with some 376 out of 550 members approving the constitutional amendment, preventing the need for a referendum on the issue. The move, backed by the president’s [...]
Attorneys for Chelsea Manning, the former US military soldier who leaked secrets to WikiLeaks , on Thursday, filed a brief to appeal her 35-year prison term for violating the Espionage Act. Manning is asserting that her rights to free speech were violated by the Espionage Act because the court failed to determine the importance of [...]
The Oklahoma legislature approved a resolution Thursday asking Congress to impeach President Barack Obama over his administration’s guidance on ensuring the protection and inclusion of transgender individuals in federal civil rights law. The legislators believe that the president has overstepped his constitutional authority and are requesting that congress initiate impeachment proceedings: The members of the [...]
