Several Egyptian opposition groups, including the Strong Egypt Party, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Egyptian Current Party and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, filed a lawsuit on Saturday demanding the government open up the draft budget for public debate. The opposition groups originally requested Egypt’s upper house of [...]

A Russian court on Friday denied a request for parole by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the feminist rock band Pussy Riot , so that she could look after her young daughter. In August Tolokonnikova and two other members of the group were sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism,” characterized by the court [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Friday upheld a Missouri law that bans protests within 300 feet of funerals but struck down a second broader law that would have increased the distance at which protesters to could congregate. The challenge to the laws came from members of the Westboro Baptist Church [...]

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a deed dispute over Marcellus shale gas rights that the gas is not considered a “mineral.” The dispute dates back to an 1881 deed that conveyed partial mineral rights to the property holder. In the decision, the court reaffirmed Pennsylvania’s “Dunham rule,” derived from Dunham v. Kirkpatrick , [...]

Zivko Budimir, president of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, one of the governing entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) , was arrested on Friday along with 17 other officials as part of a corruption investigation and crackdown. Budimir and others were detained and questioned while their offices were being raided and then they were arrested. The group [...]

A Pakistani court on Friday mandated that former president Pervez Musharraf stay in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) until resumption of the case regarding the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto . According to media sources, the 69 year-old former military ruler will be held at his Islamabad farmhouse under house-arrest [...]

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) on Wednesday denounced draft legislation restricting the financial autonomy of civic associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The draft law gives government “security bodies” the power to monitor the finances of domestic NGOs by requiring that any funding be placed into government accounts for a 60 day approval [...]

The Obama administration on Thursday petitioned the US Supreme Court to uphold the president’s ability to make executive appointments while the Senate is in recess. The recess appointment is a constitutional power that permits the president fill vacancies in the executive branch without the typical consent of the Senate. In its petition, the National Labor [...]

Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday approved a bill that provides expanded investigative powers and criminal penalties for terrorism related matters. The short title of the bill is The Combating Terrorism Act. The legislation permits law enforcement to hold individuals suspected of terrorist activities for three days without criminal charges and adds 12 months supervision [...]

The EU Court of Justice on Thursday upheld the EU’s three-year ban on seal products. Regulation (EC) No 1007/2009 , which recognizes seals as “sentient beings that can experience pain, distress, fear and other forms of suffering,” and bans all imports containing seal products, took effect in August 2010, exempting only Inuit hunters. Canada’s Inuit [...]