UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement on Thursday reenforcing the need for any new Egyptian draft law should respect human rights standards. The statement came as concern over increased convictions of international NGO personnel mounts. Ban reiterated the UN’s commitment to helping the Egyptian government and its people through a successful democratic transition. Following [...]

The House Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) , which would keep the detention center at Guantanamo Bay open despite President Barack Obama’s renewed statements that he will close it. According to the official summary , “While the NDAA mandates the designation of a senior official to facilitate [...]

The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled Thursday that couples in same-sex civil unions should be awarded the same income tax benefits as married couples. This ruling is a retroactive interpretation of the Civil Partnership Act of 2001 , which recognized civil unions, but did not explicitly grant those tax benefits. Unions where one partner [...]

The National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting call data from Verizon customers under a top secret court order published by The Guardian Wednesday. The court order, granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to the FBI in April, requires Verizon to turn over information about phone calls between the US and foreign countries and [...]

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday expressed frustration and disappointment over the situation in Darfur . Presenting the ICC’s briefing to the UN Security Council , Fatou Bensouda characterized the situation as having “gone from bad to worse,” citing the fact 300,000 people have been displaced in the first five [...]

The UK government on Wednesday reached a settlement agreement with thousands of Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces during the 1950s. Negotiations began last October after the Queen’s Bench Division on the High Court of England and Wales ruled that three elderly Kenyans could sue the British government for torture they suffered while in detention [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered Wednesday that the two-pill variety of the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B be made immediately available to all individuals regardless of age. A one-pill version will continue to be subject to age restrictions pending appeal. The Obama administration had sought to block a lower [...]

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales pleaded guilty to the premeditated murder of 16 Afghan civilians on Wednesday in order to comply with a plea deal and avoid the death penalty. Bales admitted to leaving his post last March in the Kandahar province in order seek out and murder civilians. Bales read the individual charges against him [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles federal court, alleging that Border Patrol and immigration officers are guilty of coercing hundreds, or possibly thousands of Mexican nationals into signing their own deportation documents and forfeiting their right to a fair hearing before an immigration judge. The complaint [...]

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission on Wednesday lifted the country’s ban against YouTube . The website has been banned since September, after an anti-Islam movie appeared on the site. The movie, titled Innocence of Muslims , is a spoof film that characterizes the Prophet Mohammed as a fool and womanizer. Sunil Kanti Bose, head of [...]