The US is hindering Poland’s investigation into a secret CIA prison there, a Polish prosecutor said Saturday. Piotr Kosmaty, spokesman for the Appeals Prosecutor’s Office in Krakow that is doing the investigation, said that the US has ignored requests for documents relevant to the investigation. The Polish investigators were interested in a report by the [...]

Mexico’s Supreme Court has declared it unconstitutional for Mexican states to ban same-sex marriages. The court’s June 3 ruling, made public this week, is considered a “jurisprudential thesis” and does not invalidate any state laws making it necessary for same-sex couples to seek individual redress from the courts. However, based on this ruling, all judges [...]

Six Guantanamo detainees were transferred to Oman Saturday, marking the first transfer of detainees from the prison in five months.The Pentagon reports that the six Yemeni men transferred include Emad Abdullah Hassan, held without charge since 2002, Idris Ahmad ‘Abd Al Qadir Idris and Jalal Salam Awad Awad, all accused of being one of many [...]

A US District Court judge on Friday approved an agreement between the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the city of Cleveland that is intended to reform the city’s police department. The agreement , a consent decree reached after five months of negotiation between attorneys for both sides, imposes “a special obligation on to the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday struck down the conspiracy conviction of Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul , the media secretary for Osama bin Laden , in a 2-1 decision. The court ruled that conspiracy was not a war crime for which Bahlul could be tried by [...]

Michigan governor Rick Snyder on Thursday signed into law a bill that allows private adoption agencies to deny placements they object to for religious reasons, including placements with same-sex couples. Snyder said the law reflects existing practices by the state and that his objective is to get as many children adopted as possible. Michigan Catholic [...]

Humans Rights Watch (HRW) , along with Amnesty International, Civil Society Organizations Reference Group and National Civil Society Congress called on authorities in Kenya on Thursday to stop the harassment and intimidation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the country’s coastal region. The groups said in a statement (HRW report) that the harassment and intimidation of [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and a spokesperson for the EU on Thursday demanded that the government of Pakistan reinstate its death penalty moratorium. The EU also called on the Pakistani government to uphold their obligations under international law, which condemns the use of torture and prohibits state executions of [...]

Assistant Secretary-General for UN peacekeeping operations Edmund Mulet said Tuesday that the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan is continuing to harm civilians. Presenting the Report of the Secretary-General on the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur to the UN Security Council , Mulet said an increase in violent attacks “by armed [...]

The European Commission said Thursday that they have opened a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s e-books business. The investigation will focus on particular clauses in Amazon’s contracts requiring publishers to inform Amazon about more favorable or alternative terms offered to Amazon’s competitors. Amazon has also added clauses to their contracts that require publishers to offer [...]