A Turkish court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Monday acquitted a Dutch journalist accused of producing propaganda materials on behalf of a Kurdish rebel group. Freelance journalist Frederike Geerdink was charged with disseminating “terrorist propaganda” after she made a series of social media posts allegedly in support of the government-banned Kurdistan Workers Party [...]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday rejected a petition to stop US drone attacks in the northwestern tribal region of the country. Justice Saqib Nisar presided over the petition and concluded that the it was not a legal issue but rather a security related matter. The decision comes after Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court last [...]
The Kenyan government announced on Sunday that it asked the UN Refugee Agency to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees by July. The request comes in the wake of the Garissa University massacre, an attack by Shebab insurgents that left nearly 150 dead. A statement released by the Kenyan government included statements by Vice [...]
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha, Qatar on Sunday and highlighted the crucial connection between the rule of law and sustainable development. The Congress also adopted the Doha Declaration which highlights important aspects of fighting global organized crime, how countries can prevent [...]
Islamist opposition leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was executed in Bangladesh on Saturday for war crimes committed in 1971 during the nation’s war of independence. Kamaruzzaman, who was one of the highest-ranking officials in the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party , was convicted of committing torture, abduction and mass murder, including the killing of 120 unarmed farmers in the [...]
The UN announced on Saturday that the Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) will make an urgent trip to Yarmouk, a Syrian refugee camp that has fallen under control of the Islamic State (IS). According to UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness, the visit is prompted by the organization’s “deepening concerns for the [...]
An Egyptian criminal court on Saturday sentenced US citizen Mohamed Soltan to life in prison for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and for transmitting false news. Soltan, who was arrested in 2013 and staged a hunger strike while in prison, is a citizen of both the US and Egypt. Judge Mohamed Nagi Shehata, who handed down [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Friday ruled against portions of a Missouri law which required those providing health plan advice to obtain a license from the state, concluding that the licensing portions of the state law are pre-empted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) . The advocacy [...]
The European Central Bank (ECB) on Friday released an opinion on Greece’s draft law prohibiting the foreclosure of primary residences. Under the draft law, banks are prohibited from auctioning primary residences valued at less than €300,000 (USD $317,580), provided that borrowers meet certain total wealth requirements. The draft law is intended to replace Greece’s recently-expired [...]
The Idaho State Legislature on Friday voted to kill legislation that would have brought the state into compliance with federal guidelines on the collection of child support. Legislators were concerned that the bill would force Idaho to enforce child support rulings made in foreign tribunals, particularly those enforcing Islamic law, under the Hague Convention on [...]
