Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday said that the SAFE Justice Act, a US criminal justice reform bill introduced in June, could better protect prisoners’ rights and increase fairness in federal prison sentencing. The bill proposes reforms to federal sentencing statutes, which include the modification of mandatory minimums to exclude people in drug trafficking offenses [...]
A federal judge issued a court order on Thursday that all Louisiana officials must grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples . The order, issued by Judge Martin Feldman of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana , specifically requires the state to both issue the licenses and also begin recognizing marriage rights [...]
Russian parliament members on Friday voted for a bill that forces online search engines to remove search results about a person at that person’s request. The new law will allow a person to request that search engines like Yahoo! or Google remove search results for his or her name without stating which specific links they [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday ruled that unpaid internships are legal when they are tied to the intern’s education. The decision reverses a lower court decision that Fox Searchlight Pictures acted illegally by not paying interns, finding that the lower court erred when it ruled that interns should be [...]
UN observers on Thursday said that the parliamentary elections held in Burundi this week were unfair, not free and led to human rights violations. In the preliminary statement by the UN Electoral Observation Mission in Burundi (MENUB) , the observers said that the elections took place during a “tense political crisis” and “fundamental freedoms of [...]
The Miguel Agustin Pro human rights center in Mexico on Thursday announced that there is evidence that high-ranking Mexican officers gave soldiers orders to kill criminals prior to an army mass slaying of suspected cartel members in June 2014. The military documents indicate that the soldiers may have been following orders during the incident, where [...]
Swiss authorities on Thursday said that the United States has asked Switzerland to extradite seven FIFA officials who were arrested on corruption charges in late May. The Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) announced that formal extradition requests by the US were submitted on Wednesday. Top FIFA executives, including the seven who were arrested in [...]
China’s top legislature, the NPC Standing Committee , on Wednesday adopted a controversial new National Security Law that increases cyber security powers and provides the possibility of establishing efficient crisis management systems. At its bi-monthly session, 155 members of the committee voted on the measure. The law will increase overseeing of the internet in China [...]
BP on Thursday reached a settlement that will require the company to pay $18.7 billion in penalties and damages to settle all claims regarding the 2010 Gulf oil spill . The agreement, the largest corporate settlement in US history, will add to the $43.8 billion that BP had budgeted for penalties and cleanup costs, bringing [...]
Sabq news , a Saudi government linked news website, reported on Thursday that King Salman ordered for an investigation and trial of a famous TV host and Muslim Brotherhood scholar. The order was reportedly motivated by an episode of Abdullah al-Modifer’s show that was critical of King Abdullah’s policies, which outlawed Islamic groups. The TV [...]
