Texas officials responded Monday to a US Department of Justice filing asking the US District Court for the Western District of Texas to subject the state to a preclearance regime similar to the one required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) . In a 54-page filing, the Texas officials argued [...]

Chilean judge Mario Carroza on Monday rejected a request by human rights lawyer Eduardo Contreras to prosecute former general Fernando Matthei for murder. Matthei oversaw the military facility where General Alberto Bachelet was tortured to death in 1973 after Bachelet refused to support the military coup lead by Augusto Pinochet . Contreras has attempted to [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday filed suit against Bank of America (BOA) in the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina , claiming the corporation misled investors about securitized loans worth more than $850 million. The complaint alleges that BOA deceived investors regarding the level of risk associated with [...]

The US Embassy in Hanoi on Tuesday criticized a new Vietnam Internet decree that would effectively restrict online discussion of current affairs in the country. The decree requires all foreign websites to have at least one server in Vietnam, which would give greater content control to the Vietnamese government. The US embassy stated that the [...]

The Supreme Court of Russia on Tuesday reduced the prison sentences of former Russian oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev by two months. As a result of the ruling, Khodorkovsky should now be released from prison in August 2014, with Lebedev due for release a few months earlier. This ruling came [...]

Several UN human rights experts Monday decried the human rights situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) , stating that abuses of power are common and urging authorities to take immediate action to end violations. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns , called for a thorough, transparent and independent [...]

A proposed amnesty bill in Thailand could allow police to go unpunished for use of excessive force against civilians, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Monday. The bill, proposed by majority party member Worachai Hema, would excuse the behavior of all members of the military and police forces who were accused of malfeasance following the 2006 [...]

The Ivory Coast Head of State granted bail on Monday to 14 allies of former president Laurent Ggabo in a publicized effort to reach peace. The Ggabo supporters were jailed in 2010 for inciting violence after their party, the Popular Front (FPI), disputed the election results. The opposition party was also accused of participating in [...]

Nine apparent ballistic missile attacks on populated areas have killed at least 215 civilians , including 100 children, between February and July Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Monday. Ballistic missiles with large payloads of high-explosives have a wide-area destructive effect, making it impossible to isolate its devastation to single human targets, so HRW has said [...]

The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has reason to believe that, based upon the findings of a preliminary investigation, crimes against humanity have been committed in Nigeria by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram . In a report issued Monday, Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda wrote: Information available provides a reasonable [...]