Saudi Arabian officials said Saturday that the government has executed 47 prisoners convicted of terrorism charges, including al Qaeda detainees and a prominent Shiite cleric who rallied protesters against the government. The execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which has already sparked protests, may deepen discontent among Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority and heighten sectarian tensions across [...]

Three book authors and their advocacy organization, the Authors Guild , challenged Google’s massive book-copying and search project before the US Supreme Court . The petition alleges that Google, in cooperation with various university libraries, took essentially all the books off shelves and scanned them rather than buy or license them. According to the petition, [...]

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals placed a temporary injunction on Wednesday on an order from Utah Governor Gary Herbert which would have ended the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood and cut federal funding to the Utah branches of the company. The injunction is the court’s response to an appeal by Planned Parenthood after U.S. [...]

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both parties to the Burundian conflict yesterday upon the resumption of talks between Burundian stakeholders that continued dialogue between the parties is needed to prevent a relapse into the decades of civil war. Recent violence stemming from President Pierre Nkurunziza’s re-election has caused international concern over the internal [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Jason Coats of the US Naval War College discusses the investigations into the legitimacy of reports concerning ISIS… On December 11, the Chairmen of three House of Representatives committees—the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), the Armed Services Committee and Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee (APCDS)—announced the establishment of a joint task force [...]

Imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi , a recent recipient of the prestigious European human rights award, the Sakharov Prize, has suffered fainting spells and deteriorating health owing to the lengthy hunger strike he initiated more than 20 days ago. According to Ensaf Haidar, Badawi’s wife who was recently granted asylum in Canada, the strike was [...]

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed to all the parties involved in the Yemen conflict to allow the safe passage of food to the city of Taiz where people have been going hungry for weeks. According to Muhannad Hadi, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, [...]

Christoph Strässer, Human Rights Commissioner for EU-member Germany, on Tuesday stated that Turkey should not receive a “discount” on meeting human rights criteria to join the EU . Strässer condemned Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stating that the human rights situation in the nation has deteriorated under his administration. The criticism comes after the EU [...]

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled Wednesday that the state’s lifetime ban on convicted criminals gaining full-time employment in nursing homes and long-term care facilities was unconstitutional. The unanimous decision supported the plaintiffs’ claim that section 503(a) of the Older Adults Protective Services Act violated due process. The court held that the bar on convicted [...]

A court in Bangladesh sentenced two men to death and six others to prison on Thursday for murdering Ahmed Rajib Haider, an atheist blogger known by the name of Thaba Baba, in 2013. Those convicted included seven university students and Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, a leader of the outlawed Islamist Ansarullah Bangla Team. The students claim [...]