The Cairo Appeals Court for Urgent Matters on Saturday banned and declared Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Qassam Brigades) to be a terrorist group. Qassam Brigades is the armed branch of Hamas , which is itself an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood . The ruling is based on allegations by Egyptian officials that Qassam Brigades played [...]
Virginia officials reached a $520,000 settlement Wednesday over attorney’s fees with challengers of the commonwealth’s same-sex marriage ban. The plaintiffs are allowed to seek attorney’s fees because they successfully challenged the marriage ban under a federal civil rights law. Two law firms worked on the case: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Boies, Schiller & Flexner. [...]
A spokesperson for the Kyrgyzstan government discussed proposed legislation that would allow the Kyrgyz government to shut down media outlets without requiring a court decision with Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Friday. Justice Ministry spokesman Emir Zulpuev told RFE/RL that the legislation would allow the government complete authority to close media outlets if the [...]
A representative of Google signed an agreement Friday to rewrite the company’s current privacy policy in response to pressure from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) . The ICO brought an action for breach of privacy on behalf of more than 100 users of Apple’s Safari browser who claim that Google tracked their browsing history [...]
UN rights experts on Friday urged the Omani government to release Said Ali Said Jadad, a human rights activist. Jadad, who promoted democratic reforms, was arrested last week with no warrant and charged with undermining the prestige of the state, inciting demonstrations, steering up sectarian strife and offending state officials. The Special Rapporteur on the [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada held on Friday that a worker’s right to strike is constitutionally protected. The court’s decision came after a challenge to the constitutionality of a Saskatchewan statute that limited the ability of “essential service employees” from participating in any strike action against their employer. The court held that the statute was [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday filed a lawsuit in federal court that effectively challenges debt collection practices that have resulted in the jailing of many low-income people. The ACLU brought the case in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia after a teenager, Kevin Thompson, was issued a traffic [...]
A group of three UN special rapporteurs urged the international community on Friday to provide humanitarian aid and funding to Malawi after it experienced the worst flooding in recent history. Malawi habitually experiences varying degrees of flooding that requires action by emergency response units of fluctuating size. However, due to early onset rains this year, [...]
The US Senate on Thursday approved the Keystone XL Pipeline Bill , which proposes development of a 1,179 mile pipeline for the transmission of crude oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The Republican-led Senate approved the bill in a 62 to 36 vote, with only nine Democrats joining the Republican majority. Sources believe [...]
A man with an IQ of 67 was executed in Texas on Thursday after the US Supreme Court denied two pleas for delay that same day. Defense attorneys for Robert Ladd said that his death violates the Constitution , and that his life would have been spared in any other state because of his IQ. [...]
