Key provisions of the USA Patriot Act expired Monday after a late Senate Vote failed to establish an extension. The provisions that expired were in Section 215 of the act and included: the “Bulk Data Collection” provision, which allowed the government to collect data, the “Lone Wolf” provision, which allowed surveillance on individuals not directly [...]

Four former Serbian secret service agents pleaded not guilty to murder charges on Monday relating to the 1999 slaying of journalist Slavko Curuvija . Curuvija, an outspoken critic of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic , was shot and killed outside his apartment in an assassination planned by former Serbian spy agency chief Radomir Markovic. Milosevic’s [...]

Sohel Rana and 40 other people were charged with murder on Monday over the 2013 collapse of a garment factory that killed more than 1,100 people. Bangladesh authorities brought charges against Rana , the building owner, as well as his parents and more than a dozen government officials for ignoring warnings that should have caused [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Monday in Mellouli v. Lynch that an immigrant’s conviction for concealing unnamed pills in his sock did not trigger removal under under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) . The INA provides that non-citizens may be deported if they are convicted of violating “any law or regulation of a [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett that a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding may not void a junior mortgage lien under §506(d) when the debt owed on a senior mortgage lien exceeds the current value of the collateral if the creditor’s claim is both secured by [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Monday in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. in favor of a Muslim woman who was denied a job at Abercrombie & Fitch . The question before the court was whether an employer can be liable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Monday in Elonis v. United States that negligence is not enough to support a conviction for communicating a threat. In this case the court was asked to consider whether a conviction of threatening another person over interstate lines under 18 USC § 875(c) requires proof that the defendant maintained [...]

Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights reported on Sunday that at least 2,600 people have been killed by violence in the 18 months following the military ouster of Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Head of the agency Mohammed Fayeq told reporters that the 2,600 casualties included 700 policemen and 550 civilians killed between June 30, 2013, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday decided not to get involved, for the time being, in a case regarding whether the public should have access to video footage showing a Guantanamo detainee being force-fed. The court concluded that it was without jurisdiction to issue orders regarding the videotapes. [...]

Egyptian authorities on Saturday freed Egyptian-American prisoner Mohammed Soltan, who had been sentenced to life in prison and had been on a hunger strike for over a year. As a precondition to Soltan’s release, he had to renounce his Egyptian citizenship . Soltan was convicted on charges of financing an anti-government sit-in and spreading “false [...]