The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in Alaska Superior Court challenging a new regulation that seeks to prevent Medicaid from covering elective abortions. In 2001 the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the state must cover a full range of [...]

A court in Bangladesh sentenced 14 men to death on Thursday for their involvement in a 2004 arms smuggling operation. Among the individuals sentenced was Matiur Rahman Nizami , the leader of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party. In addition, the 14 included former deputy interior minister, Lutfozzaman Babar, and a former director general of the National [...]

The Pakistan Supreme Court dismissed former military leader Pervez Musharraf’s petition on Thursday to review its 2009 verdict declaring the 2007 imposed emergency as unconstitutional. The 14 justices, led by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani , dismissed the petition stating that it was barred by length of time since the original ruling. The court also [...]

The Office of the Federal Public Defender of Colorado and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a motion on behalf of terror suspect Jamshid Muhtorov Wednesday to suppress evidence the National Security Agency (NSA) obtained from surveillance conducted pursuant to the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) . Muhtorov, a 35-year-old Uzbekistan refugee was [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday applauded the Lithuanian Vilnius Regional Court ruling that Saudi Arabian national Mustafa al-Hawsawi has a right to investigate his alleged torture in a secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detention center. AI called the decision a victory for accountability and stated that the court had set an example for European countries [...]

The Verkhovna Rada , the Parliament of Ukraine, on Wednesday passed a law granting conditional amnesty to protesters arrested during the weeks of unrest that have gripped the nation. The passage of this measure came during the parliament’s extraordinary session , which began earlier in the day on Wednesday. Opposition parties refused to take part [...]

Egyptian prosecutors charged 20 Al Jazeera journalists on Wednesday for joining or conspiring with a terrorist group and broadcasting false images. The journalists are accused of altering and broadcasting video footage of false scenes of a civil war and influencing public opinion toward thinking Egypt is in a state of collapse in order to assist [...]

Paulino Winawilla Unago, the minister of justice in South Sudan announced that a group of political leaders, including former Vice President Riek Machar , could face treason charges for their role in an alleged coup in December. Speaking to a group of reporters on Tuesday , the justice minister said that “anybody who intends to [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday denied petitions for panel and en banc rehearing of its decision upholding California’s law prohibiting licensed therapists from utilizing sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE), also known as conversion therapy. The plaintiffs in the case, which include a group of SOCE practitioners, filed for panel [...]

The US State Department , Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) joined Tuesday to condemn the Cuban government’s detentions of dissidents to keep them away from a Havana summit of hemispheric leaders. According to rights activists in Havana, an estimated 100 pro-democracy activists have been briefly detained or put under house arrest for [...]