Florida’s highest court on Thursday ordered an evidentiary hearing to determine if the sedative midazolam should remain in the state’s lethal injection procedure. The case of Paul Augustus Howell reached the state high court after a successful appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2013. The court of Appeals lifted [...]

The UN and the African Union (AU) have signed a joint agreement on the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence in Africa. The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Zainab Bangura , signed the document with Ambassador Smail Chergui of Algeria, Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Union. The agreement strengthens national [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Saturday that the federal government plans to give married same-sex couples the same benefits as heterosexual couples when filing for bankruptcy, testifying in court or visiting family members in prison. These benefits would allow same-sex couples to be covered by spousal privilege in criminal investigations, wherein one spouse [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday urged Tunisian authorities, in celebration of the country’s new constitution, to quash the sentences of anyone convicted under laws that violate human rights, including Jaber Mejri. In March 2012, Mejri and another blogger, Ghazi Beji, were sentenced to more than seven years in prison for harming “public order or [...]

The National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting less than 30 percent of all Americans’ phone records due to the inability to keep up with the increased use of cellular phones, according to disclosures made by current and former US officials on Friday. This contradicts the widely-held belief that the government is collecting all domestic phone [...]

On Friday, a group of police unions filed a motion to block Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed settlement and removal of former mayor Michael Bloomberg’s appeal of the stop and frisk policy. The motion was filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in response to de Blasio’s recent decision to drop [...]

Merck & Co. agreed to pay $100 million to settle thousands of lawsuits concerning Merck’s NuvaRing contraceptive device. The lawsuits allege that NuvaRing potentially causes fatal blood clots. The settlement will provide an average payment of over $58,000 per case. This settlement is less than other contraceptive makers have had to pay in similar lawsuits. [...]

US President Barack Obama signed into law on Friday a $956 billion farm bill providing expanded crop insurance and other benefits for the agricultural sector. The bill passed the Senate last week with a bipartisan vote. Beyond expanding federal crop insurance, the farm bill also ends direct government payments for farmers regardless of whether they [...]

France’s State Council , the country’s top administrative court, ruled on Friday that Google must display press release] on its French page that it has been fined by the local data-protection watchdog for how they store user information. Google has stated that it will comply with the order, but will continue to fight the fine [...]

UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights , Farida Shaheed announced Friday that she will launch a new study on how marketing and advertising affect cultural rights. Shaheed plans to focus her study on the challenges that marketing strategies present to cultural rights such as the right to education, the right to artistic [...]