Civil liberties groups on Monday sued the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) known as MI6, alleging that the agency accesses data from undersea cables in violation of the rights to private life and freedom of expression. The case will be heard by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal . The existence of the surveillance program, allegedly named [...]

Citigroup, Inc. on Monday agreed to pay $7 billion to settle a federal inquiry into mortgage-backed securities sold by the bank prior to the country’s financial crisis. The deal, which involves one of the largest cash penalties ever paid to settle such allegations, includes a $4 billion civil penalty to the US Department of Justice [...]

The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters on Monday overturned a May decision that banned former leaders of the National Democratic Party (NDP) from running in the country’s parliamentary elections. An Urgent Matters Court in May accused the now-dissolved NDP of appointing corrupt governments, stating that allowing a political return for the former ruling party would [...]

An Iranian court has sentenced eight Facebook page administrators to jail for terms between eight and 21 years, Iran’s official news agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) , reported on Sunday. The defendants were convicted of plotting against national security, spreading propaganda against the ruling system and insulting officials, though the Facebook pages in [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday overturned two out of three convictions of Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul , the media secretary of Osama Bin Laden . The court vacated Bahlul’s convictions for providing material support for terrorism and solicitation of others to commit war crimes but [...]

An Egyptian appeals court on Friday overturned the one-year jail sentence of previous Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s former prime minister Hisham Qandil. The decision was reported by Qandil’s lawyer to Agence France Presse (AFP) in Cairo. Qandil was initially arrested trying to flee the country after Morsi was overthrown by the military last July. It [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Friday denied Utah’s request to block legal recognition of about 1,300 same-sex weddings performed after the state’s ban was briefly lifted in December. The request came in response to both the District Court for the District of Utah’s ruling in December and the Tenth Circuit’s [...]

The Criminal Court of Paris sentenced nine men to prison on Friday for belonging to terrorist groups and plotting attacks against France, in violation of France’s terrorism law . Only two of the men were present for the hearing, the others being tried in absentia . All denied being fighters or having planned attacks.The men [...]

Iraqi security forces have extrajudicially executed at least 255 Sunni prisoners , Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Friday. HRW estimates that the executions are revenge for killings committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) , a Sunni extremist group. Many of the individuals were reportedly arrested under Article 4 of Iraq’s [...]

There is mounting evidence of abductions and violence against activists, protesters and journalists in eastern Ukraine over the last three months, Amnesty International (AI) reported Friday. The report, entitled Abductions and Torture in Eastern Ukraine , documents the findings of allegations of abduction and torture perpetrated by separatist armed groups and pro-Kyiv forces. The Ukrainian [...]