Allegations of fraud [JURIST report] following the 2007 elections led to violence that caused the deaths of more than 1,000 people and displacement of 500,000 others, and remains a concern in the international community. The ICC initiated a formal investigation into the violence after Kenya failed to conduct [JURIST report] its own investigation in 2009. In July 2012 the ICC set the trial dates [JURIST report] for the post-election violence cases against Kenyatta, Ruto, journalist Joshua Arap Sang and former civil service chief Francis Muthaura. The trial of Ruto and Arap Sang is expected to start [decision, PDF] on April 10, while the trial of Kenyatta and Muthaura is to begin [decision, PDF] on April 11. In June, the ICC expressed its desire to start the two Kenyan trials simultaneously [JURIST report] to avoid any appearance of bias in the March 2013 presidential election. The four men have been accused and charged with involvement in the 2007 post-election violence. Ruto and Sang are facing three counts of murder, forcible transfer and persecution while Kenyatta and Muthaura are facing five counts of orchestrating murder, rape, forcible transfer and persecution in the polls' aftermath.

Mali has drawn increased international scrutiny recently, particularly from the UN as more reports of political violence and human rights abuses come to light. Earlier this month UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng [official profile] warned [JURIST report] of an increased risk of reprisal attacks against ethnic Tuareg and Arab civilian populations in the northern regions of Mali. In January the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [official profile] warned [JURIST report] the Malian government over reports of human rights abuses by Malian forces. In the statement, Bensouda urged Malian authorities to put an immediate stop to the alleged abuses and to investigate and prosecute those responsible. Bensouda announced that her office has launched an investigation [JURIST report] into possible war crimes committed in the region.

Facebook has faced numerous legal challenges in its near decade-long history. Aside from the company's major settlements with Eduardo Saverin and the Winklevoss twins, privacy advocacy groups Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy [advocacy websites] urged [JURIST report] CEO Mark Zuckerberg in November to withdraw privacy changes, claiming that the alterations may violate a settlement [JURIST report] with the Federal Trade Commission [official website]. In August German data privacy authorities reopened [JURIST report] an investigation into Facebook's facial recognition software, taking issue with the website's ability to automatically recognize individuals' facial features in pictures.

Voting rights [JURIST backgrounder] remain a contentious issue in the US. The ACLU challenged the law [petition for review, PDF; JURIST report] in May, asking a court to block enforcement of the law for the November elections. The group claimed that the law violates the Pennsylvania Constitution [text] and will prevent eligible voters from casting their votes. Pennsylvania Governor Corbett signed the bill into law [JURIST report] in March. It was passed earlier that week in the House of Representatives by a vote of 104-88. In November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated the decision [JURIST reports] of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court upholding the state's new voter identification law and remanded for further consideration. Unlike the current trend of voter ID laws, Pennsylvania's allows voters to vote without an ID as long as they verify their identity within six days of voting. Absentee ballots will also only require identification by Social Security number. There are now 32 US states [NCSL backgrounder] that require voters to present some form of ID at the polls, but the issue remains controversial.

Justice for victims of war crimes and other serious abuses during the 1971 war of liberation is essential. But a government supposedly guided by the rule of law cannot simply pass retroactive laws to overrule court decisions when it doesn't like them. The Bangladesh government should pause, take a deep breath, and repeal the proposed amendments, which make a mockery of the trial process.

Mollah's sentence was the latest to be handed down for war crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War (BLW) [advocacy website]. Last week, UN officials expressed concern over a death sentence [JURIST reports] that was handed down last month against Abul Kalam Azad, another former leader of JI, for similar war crimes. Both Azad and Mollah's sentences were handed down by Bangladesh's ICT, which was established in March 2010 specifically to hear cases involving war crimes during the BLW.

Transnistria is a territory located between Ukraine and Moldova. It is de jure a part of Moldova, but has had de facto independence since the early 1990s. In 1990, the region announced its intention to succeed from Moldova to become the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR). Between 1990 and 1992 at least 700 people were killed in fighting between Transnistrian separatists and Moldova. In a 2006 referendum that was not recognized by the international community [BBC report], 97 percent of the people in the region voted for independence and expressed support for a plan to eventually joining Russia.

There is no doubt that naturally occurring DNA and RNA as they exist inside the cells of the human body cannot be the subject of a valid patent. However, the disputed claims do not cover naturally occurring DNA and RNA as they exist inside such cells. The disputed claims extend only to naturally occurring DNA and RNA which have been extracted from cells obtained from the human body and purged of other biological materials with which they were associated.

A similar gene patent case is pending [JURIST report] before the US Supreme Court [official website]. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against Myriad Genetics in 2009, arguing that genes could not be patented because they are products of nature, and patenting genes would violate the First Amendment [ACLU backgrounder]. The US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] reversed the ruling [JURIST report] in August, saying that Myriad had a right to patent the isolated cells because they were "transformed" and Myriad's method of isolation included steps that were not naturally occurring. When asked to reconsider the case in light of Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. [opinion, PDF], a case in which the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year to deny medical tests relying on correlations between drug dosages and treatment cannot be patented, the judges were split on how it applied and each stuck to his or her original decision on the outcome.

Same-sex marriage is currently legal in nine states, as well as the District of Columbia. Last month, the Rhode Island House of Representatives approved [JURIST report] a bill [H 5015, PDF] that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. The bill passed by a vote of 51-19 after a lengthy debate on the House floor. Rhode Island is currently the only state in New England that has not legalized same-sex marriage, and previous attempts to legalize same-sex marriage in the predominantly Catholic state have been unsuccessful. Earlier in January the US Supreme Court received briefs [JURIST report] in two separate cases defending the constitutionality of laws that define marriage as strictly between one man and one woman.