The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed on Friday the dismissal of the Alaskan village of Kivalina’s nuisance claims against energy companies for greenhouse emissions it claimed contributed to global warming and threatened its existence. Kivalina brought suit against 22 energy corporations, attributing the destruction of its land to the effects of [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Saturday that Iran should reverse new policies for this academic year that deny many students, particularly women, academic freedom. The policies, announced in a manual released by the country’s Science and Technology Ministry last month, limit the number of men or women that can be enrolled in certain academic [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced on Friday that, following a request it made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) , the government has released the names of 55 detainees who were approved for release from Guantanamo Bay in 2010 but have yet to be released. The ACLU said it is happy that [...]

Apple filed a motion on Friday with the US District Court for the Northern District of California asking the court to issue an injunction prohibiting Samsung from selling products in the US that supposedly infringe on Apple’s patents. In the filing, Apple also sought $707 million dollars in damages from Samsung , including $400 million [...]

The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled on Thursday that the state cannot force pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives if they have religious objections to these drugs. The appeals court held that an Illinois law known as the Current Rule , which requires pharmacists to dispense contraceptives including Plan B , violates pharmacists’ rights [...]

The Constitutional Council of France on Friday rejected a challenge to the bullfighting exception contained in the animal cruelty provisions of the country’s criminal code. Article 521-1 of the Criminal Code provides for two years in prison and a 30,000 euro fine for the serious maltreatment or commission of an act of cruelty toward any [...]

A Turkish court on Friday delivered the first of more than 300 verdicts expected in the trial examining the 2003 Balyoz Security Operation Plan , or “Sledgehammer” plot , which included plans to bomb Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece into shooting down a Turkish plane in order to undermine the government. Three former military officers [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday called on authorities in Georgia to investigate prisoner mistreatment after video footage earlier this week allegedly depicted the torture and rape of prisoners in the country’s capital of Tbilisi. A spokesperson for Pillay told reporters in Geneva on Friday that the High Commissioner has called [...]

Trinidad and Tobago Justice Minister Herbert Philip Volney was removed from office Thursday on allegations that he had deceived the country’s government regarding a controversial law that established a new system of pre-trial proceedings relating to indictable offenses. Created by Volney’s Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and passed by Parliament in December, the Administration of Justice [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard arguments Thursday on whether to grant a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to obtain information from the CIA on its use of unmanned Predator drones . The CIA argued that the US government has never [...]