A judge for the Superior Court of California in the County of San Francisco ruled Thursday that requiring a Catholic hospital to perform a tubal ligation sterilization would violate its religious freedom. The plaintiff, Rebecca Chamorro, requested to have the procedure performed at the hospital after the birth of her third child as a preventative [...]
The trial of former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra began in the Supreme Court of Thailand on Friday, as she appeared in court to face corruption charges involving mismanagement of a rice-subsidy program. The charges against Shinawatra include dereliction of duty and failure to stop the corruption in connection with the rice-subsidy program, which is [...]
Brazil’s Federal Police have accused seven people and three companies of environmental crimes in its probe into the major Fundão dam collapse that occurred on November 5. The collapse, which has been termed the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history, released a flood of sludge burying rural villages, killing 19 people, and polluting more [...]
A court in Lisbon, Portugal, ruled on Friday that a former CIA operative shall be extradited to Italy to serve a seven-year sentence for her involvement in the 2003 kidnapping and rendition of Egyptian terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr. Operative Sabrina De Sousa was one of 26 former agents convicted in absentia for the [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that the use of starvation as a weapon in Syria is a war crime . According to Ban, UN teams have witnessed horrifying scenes of “the elderly and children, men and women, who were little more than skin and bones.” Ban said, ” All sides—including the Syrian government which [...]
Germany’s Federal Court of Justice ruled Thursday that a Facebook feature is unlawful. Confirming two lower court decisions, the court ruled that Facebook’s “friend finder” feature constitutes advertising harassment. The lawsuit was filed in 2010 when the Federation of German Consumer Organisations challenged whether Facebook breached German consumer protection law by sending e-mails to consumers [...]
Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit on Thursday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California against anti-abortion activists. The organization claims criminal misconduct by the activists who produced undercover videos discussing the handling and sale of fetal tissue at several Planned Parenthood clinics. The group, Center for Medical Progress , released several [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Tuesday certified class action status in a lawsuit alleging the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) specifically targeted conservative tea party groups. Judge Susan Dlott filed a sealed order to protect privacy interests but said the seal would be lifted within three weeks. [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Craig Welch of LWC Policy Consulting, Inc. discusses legislation regulating tobacco packaging in the international context, and related health and safety issues… A recent Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) decision in Singapore represents a major setback for tobacco companies in their fight against plain packaging legislation. But are the implications of this [...]
Several human rights and civil society groups called on the international community Thursday to address the killing 140 protesters in Ethiopia’s Oromia region. Amnesty International (AI) said that the protests over government plans to expand the capital of Addis Ababa into the region began peacefully, but, as they increased, military forces began to use excessive [...]
