A jury for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida on Friday handed down a verdict against RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. , awarding the plaintiff $16.8 billion in compensatory damages, and $23.6 billion in punitive damages. The case, Cynthia Robinson v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, was originally part of a larger class-action lawsuit for smoking-related injuries. [...]

An Ethiopian court on Friday charged nine journalists with terrorism and inciting violence under Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law . The journalists, including six bloggers, were arrested in April and have been prevented from accessing their families or legal counsel since their arrests. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) , since the implementation of the [...]

Italian advocacy group Hands off Cain released a report on Friday revealing that the number of deaths by capital punishment increased despite a general global trend toward capital punishment abolition. The organization reports that there are currently 161 countries and territories that, to different extents, have renounced the death penalty, and 37 countries continue to [...]

There is evidence of serious human rights violations committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) , associated armed groups, Iraqi security forces (ISF) and associated forces in the last month, including some that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the [...]

The US Supreme Court on Friday issued a stay on the recognition of same-sex marriages performed in Utah pending final disposition of the appeal by the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit . Last week the appeals court denied Utah’s request to block legal recognition of the marriages, and Utah Attorney General Sean [...]

An Italian appeals court on Friday acquitted former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in a prostitution case, reversing a lower court conviction for paying a 17-year-old dancer for sex while he was in office and for abusing his power by asking police to release her. As a result of his former conviction, Berlusconi was banned from [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Friday upheld a ruling striking down Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban. A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma ruled in January that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US [...]

A judge in Florida’s Monroe County ruled Thursday that the state’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. Circuit Judge Luis Garcia ruled in favor of same-sex couples who had challenged the voter-approved ban after they were denied a marriage license by the Monroe County clerk. In his ruling, Garcia found that Florida’s marriage laws violate the [...]

The US Department of Defense (DOD) has notified Congress that it intends to transfer six Guantanamo detainees to Uruguay, officials said Wednesday. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reportedly notified Congress about the transfers last week, which are scheduled to take place as soon as next month. The release had been tabled since March due to [...]

The French Senate adopted a law Thursday calling for increased use of probation and other measures to reduce prison overcrowding. France’s prison system has become increasingly overcrowded in past years, and it reportedly does little to discourage reoffending. The population of these prisons has grown by a third over the past decade to 70,000 due [...]