The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday released a previously secret government memo outlining the Obama administration’s legal basis for the 2011 drone strike against US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. According to the memo, al-Awlaki played an important role in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The disclosure of the [...]

Teenagers as young as 15 have been recruited to join armed groups in Syria and have been fighting in the Syrian civil war, according to a report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday. According to HRW, some of these teenagers even become suicide bombers. The report claims that Islamist groups like the Islamic [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in three cases for next term. In Department of Transportation v. Association of American Railroads the court will determine whether §207 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) “effects an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to a private entity.” Section 207(a) of the PRIIA requires [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday limited shareholders’ class action suits for securities fraud. In Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. , the court declined to overturn its 1988 decision in Basic Inc. v. Levinson . Halliburton Co. has faced numerous lawsuits concerning allegations the company put out seriously misleading information in order [...]

The Federal Court of Malaysia on Monday declined to hear an appeal challenging Malaysia’s ban on non-Muslims using the word “Allah” to refer to God. The case was brought by the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur on behalf of the Herald , a Catholic newspaper based in Malaysia. Before the ban, “Allah” was frequently used to [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday limited the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases while still leaving the agency free to do so in most cases. In Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA , which was consolidated with six other cases, the court was considering whether the EPA permissibly determined [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Loughrin v. United States that prosecution under the federal government’s anti-bank fraud statute does not require proof that a defendant intended to defraud a financial institution. Kevin Loughrin used stolen checks to steal just over $1,000 from a local Target store, but there was no evidence that he [...]

An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced two Al Jazeera journalists to seven years in prison and a third to a 10-year term. Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy were found guilty of reporting false news and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and sentenced to seven years while Baher Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years on additional charges [...]

Afghanistan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah announced on Wednesday that he has suspended his campaign’s cooperation with Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), alleging fraud by the IEC. Hundreds of Abdullah’s supporters gathered Saturday to protest the runoff election . On Sunday Abdullah released recordings purported to show that IEC [...]

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law a bill prohibiting the practice of privately transferring custody of unwanted adopted children to unrelated individuals. This practice, called re-homing or non-legalized adoption, has come under scrutiny recently following a report documenting the abuses that tend to follow from such exchanges. Because of the lack of regulation in [...]