A coalition of international human rights groups on Monday criticized the trial of 94 activists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) . The joint endeavor is led by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, the International Federation of Human Rights, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies [...]

Michel Djotodia, leader of rebel forces behind a coup in the Central African Republic (CAR) , declared in a radio address Monday that the country’s constitution is dissolved and he is now the nation’s leader. Djotodia, a leader of the Seleka rebel alliance that seized the country’s capital over the weekend and caused President Francois [...]

Rengan Rajaratnam, younger brother to former Galleon Group hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam , on Monday pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring with his brother to trade on non-public information concerning Clearwire Corporate and Advanced Micro Devices Incorporated in 2008. Rengan was charged with six counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy, [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases on Monday, including a new affirmative action case. The court will hear Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action on whether a state violates the Equal Protection Clause by amending its constitution to prohibit race- and sex-based discrimination or preferential treatment in public-university admissions decisions. The [...]

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin tendered her resignation to Governor Tom Corbett on Monday. Melvin and her sister were convicted in February of corruption for misusing state-paid staffers to do campaign work to aid Melvin in winning a seat on the bench. Pennsylvania Bar Association president Thomas Wilkinson commented on the resignation: As [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in two cases . In Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter the court is considering whether an arbitrator acts within his powers under the Federal Arbitration Act or exceeds those powers by determining that parties affirmatively agreed to authorize class arbitration based solely on their use of [...]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday condemned a coup by Central African Republic (CAR) Seleka rebels after they seized the country’s capital of Bangui, causing President Francois Bozize to flee the country. Ban appealed for calm and demanded the “swift restoration of constitutional order.” The fighting began on Friday after a January peace agreement collapsed [...]

Amnesty International (AI) urged Monday that Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire be allowed an appeal in line with international standards after being convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for denying the 1994 Rwanda genocide . According to AI’s report , Ingabire, president of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) , was treated unfairly during her [...]

The Supreme Court of Kenya on Monday ordered scrutiny of two documents used to tally votes in the March 4 presidential election and ordered a recount of all votes from 22 polling stations. The Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) and two other groups reportedly petitioned the court for a recount of the election results, [...]

Two Bahraini human rights activists have intensified their hunger strike and are refusing fluids, according to a report released Monday by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) . According to the report Zainab al-Khawaja and her father, prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja began refusing fluids in response to being denied visits from their [...]