Armed Thai soldiers on Sunday arrested human rights defender Sukanya Prueksakasemsuk and her son Panitan Prueksakasemsuk following a raid of their house in Bangkok. They were released on Monday from military custody on the condition that they give no interviews and take part in no political activities. Following their arrest the Thai military junta, the [...]

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Monday that traffickers in Yemen are holding African migrants in detention camps and using torture as a method of extorting money from their families with the cooperation of local officials. The report, entitled “‘Yemen’s Torture Camps’: Abuse of Migrants by Human Traffickers in a Climate of Immunity,” calls for [...]

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Frontrunner Petro Poroshenko claimed Ukraine’s presidency on Sunday after exit polls gave him an absolute majority in the first round of voting. Billionaire candy-maker Poroshenko, who is known as the “chocolate king,” garnered more than 55 percent of votes. While announcing his victory, Poroshenko vowed to forge closer links with the EU, but his first [...]

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The Appropriations Committee of the California State Senate on Friday voted 5-2 to pass a measure requiring distributors of bottled or canned sugary drinks to fix warning labels to the beverage container before sale. The warning label required by the bill reads: “STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, [...]

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JURIST Guest Columnist Jason Samuel, Penn State Dickinson School of Law Class of 2014, explores the constitutional framework surrounding the annexation of Crimea by Russia…When the Alma-Ata Declaration was signed on December 21, 1991, 10 nations separated from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) and became independent states. In 2001, a new [...]

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Malawi President Joyce Banda announced Saturday that, due to extreme irregularities in the voting process, she is nullifying the national tripartite results for the presidential, parliamentary and local elections. President Banda cited as her authority Section 88(2) of the Malawi Constitution, which states that the president shall have the responsibility to “provide executive leadership in [...]

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The Court of Cassation in Egypt today sentenced 19 supporters of the formerly ousted president Mohammed Morsi to five years in prison for rioting last year outside the Al-Azhar Islamic institution . It has been reported that the supporters were accused of assaulting civil servants, damaging public property, blocking roads and displaying unwarranted aggression to [...]

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The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rejected on Friday challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plan to expand broadband Internet service to rural areas. The FCC’s plan is a $4.5 billion program which subsidizes high-speed Internet services in high-cost rural areas. The challengers of the FCC plan included many phone companies [...]

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