Russia’s upper house of parliament the Council of Federation by a vote of 143 to 0 backed a bill on Wednesday prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by American parents. The bill called the Yakovlev initiative was named for Dima Yakovlev, a US adopted Russian toddler who died in 2008 in Virginia. The White House [...]

President Mohammed Morsi signed Egypt’s new constitution into law late Tuesday, which was supported by over 63 percent of those who voted in the referendum. However, only 32.9% of Egypt’s total of 52 million voters actually participated in the referendum, leading many to debate its results. Egyptian press and commentators are divided over the approval [...]

A judge for the Superior Court of Fulton County granted a temporary injunction on a law banning doctors from providing abortions for women pregnant beyond 20 weeks. The law in question was Georgia House Bill 954, which would have modified OCGA 16-12-141 with the changes to become effective January 1, 2013. The enjoined provisions include [...]

Georgian Chief Prosecutor Archil Kbilashvili announced Tuesday that the former justice minister in Georgia, Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili, is set to be charged on December 26 in connection with the torture of prisoners in the country’s capital of Tbilisi. The prosecution is investigating allegations of torture in the prison. The prosecution explained that it was [...]

The UN General Assembly voted Monday to re-enter negotiations over an international treaty for the global sale of arms, a 70 billion dollar industry. The General Assembly adopted an arms treaty with 133 votes in favor of the updated text, no votes against it, and 17 abstentions. This vote was opposed by the National Rifle [...]

The Human Rights Ombudsman in Russia, Vladimir Lukin , filed an appeal in a Moscow court on Tuesday following the ruling against Mikhail Khodorkovsky , the former CEO of Yukos, and his business partner Platon Lebedev . Lukin filed the appeal because the two men were ordered to pay restitution for the same losses twice, [...]

Judge Stephen Friot of the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on Monday denied a request from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland to prevent Oklahoma from terminating its contract with them. Planned Parenthood filed a preliminary injunction after the Oklahoma State Department of Health notified the organization that it would be ending [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused Palestinian military units located in Gaza of violating laws of war by firing rockets into populated areas of Israel. These laws of war prohibit focused attacks on civilians and civilian structures or attacks that distinguish between civilians and military targets. “There is simply no legal justification for launching [...]

India prime minister Manmohan Singh in a televised public address on Sunday called for peace and promised to prevent further attacks on women after protest over sex crimes turned violent. Singh reiterated the government’s commitment to providing security to women, but stated that violent clashes with police amid protests was not the answer. Some additional [...]

Venezuelan official stated on Saturday that the country will not be holding a new election, even if President Hugo Chavez is unable to take office on January 10 because of his cancer. Although there is a constitutional mandate that the President be sworn in on January 10, Chavez is currently recovering in Cuba from an [...]