The Thai Constitutional Court on Tuesday ordered caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down for an alleged abuse of power relating to the transfer of a senior civil servant to another position in the government that occurred shortly after she took office in 2011. The decision also removed several other cabinet members from their [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Tuesday expressed grave concern over the escalating unrest in Ukraine that has brought increasing destruction and death to the region. Pillay urged opposition groups to “lay down their weapons” and to work toward a peaceful resolution of the ongoing political crisis involving Ukraine and Russia. Pillay [...]
US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the process of investigating several financial institutions and criminal charges may follow. In the video released by the DOJ, Holder said that no institution is “too big to jail” and that his department would prosecute any institution or individual [...]
Venezuelan security forces have abused and unlawfully detained protesters, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Monday. The rights group launched its investigation following a demonstration in February where three protesters were killed by Venezuelan security forces. In its investigation of the ongoing abuse of protesters, HRW found 45 cases with strong evidence [...]
A military court for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday convicted two of 39 soldiers charged with raping more than 130 women in the province of South Kivu. Another 24 soldiers were convicted of looting. Sources indicate that rape convictions are extremely rare in the DRC and that having a trial at all [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in Robers v. United States that the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA) requires restitution calculation based upon the property a lender loses, not upon the collateral the lender receives. In 2005, petitioner Benjamin Robers submitted fraudulent loan applications seeking $470,000 for the purchase of two residences. The banks [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday in Town of Greece v. Galloway that the practice of opening town meetings with a prayer does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment . The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in 2012 that the New York town’s practice amounted to an [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in T-Mobile South v. City of Roswell to determine what it means to satisfy the Telecommunications Act’s “in writing” requirement. The court shall determine whether a state or local government document determining that an application to place, construct, or modify a personal wireless service facility has been [...]
The Vatican appeared before the Geneva committee that oversees the UN Convention Against Torture on Monday, arguing that a strict interpretation of the convention limited the church’s responsibility for the international priest sex abuse scandal. The universal governing structure of the Catholic church has insisted that their obligation to protect against torture does not extend [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Friday ordered the permanent reinstatement of hormone treatments for a transgender Ohio prison inmate who complained about losing her breast tissue, growing facial hair and suffering other related symptoms after treatments were stopped. Whitney Lee had been receiving hormone treatments since [...]
