The US Supreme Court on Friday issued a stay on the recognition of same-sex marriages performed in Utah pending final disposition of the appeal by the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit . Last week the appeals court denied Utah’s request to block legal recognition of the marriages, and Utah Attorney General Sean [...]

An Italian appeals court on Friday acquitted former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in a prostitution case, reversing a lower court conviction for paying a 17-year-old dancer for sex while he was in office and for abusing his power by asking police to release her. As a result of his former conviction, Berlusconi was banned from [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Friday upheld a ruling striking down Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban. A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma ruled in January that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US [...]

A judge in Florida’s Monroe County ruled Thursday that the state’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. Circuit Judge Luis Garcia ruled in favor of same-sex couples who had challenged the voter-approved ban after they were denied a marriage license by the Monroe County clerk. In his ruling, Garcia found that Florida’s marriage laws violate the [...]

The US Department of Defense (DOD) has notified Congress that it intends to transfer six Guantanamo detainees to Uruguay, officials said Wednesday. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel reportedly notified Congress about the transfers last week, which are scheduled to take place as soon as next month. The release had been tabled since March due to [...]

The French Senate adopted a law Thursday calling for increased use of probation and other measures to reduce prison overcrowding. France’s prison system has become increasingly overcrowded in past years, and it reportedly does little to discourage reoffending. The population of these prisons has grown by a third over the past decade to 70,000 due [...]

Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on Thursday issued a unanimous recommendation to seek criminal charges against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra for failing to end the government’s rice subsidy program, which allegedly cost the nation billions of dollars. The rice subsidy program paid Thai farmers double the market rate for rice , and it was [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ordered Russia to pay damages in the amount of €16,000 (USD $22,000) within the next three months for placing defendants in metal cages during trial. This is the first case involving the use of cages in Russian trials to reach the Grand Chamber of the ECHR. [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed concern Wednesday over the widespread lack of transparency in governmental digital surveillance practices. The High Commissioner criticized a lack of accountability in both targeted and broad scope surveillance and condemned the practice of states coercing private telecommunications companies into providing them complete access to their customers’ [...]

The European Parliament approved a resolution to allow Lithuania to adopt the euro as their official currency in a plenary session Wednesday. The resolution, which will make Lithuania the nineteenth nation to join the Eurozone on January 1, 2015, was passed by a vote of 545-116. “This is good news for Lithuania, Baltic states and [...]