The California State Assembly approved a bill on Thursday that allows some illegal immigrants who came to the US as children to obtain driver’s licenses. The bill, which the state Senate approved on Wednesday, directs California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver’s licenses to people who do not have a social security number but [...]

Officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) were in Mali on Friday investigating whether two Islamic groups, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad and Ansar Dine, have committed war crimes in Mali. According to Malian officials the Islamic groups have been committing human rights violations , including executing Malian soldiers, committing rapes, massacring civilians and [...]

A Tokyo court on Friday dismissed a claim by Apple that Samsung Electronics violated Apple’s patents with its smartphones and tablets. The technology at issued involved synchronizing music and video data . The judge stated that Samsung’s technology did not fall within the scope of Apple’s patents. Apple had claimed USD $1.3 million in damages. [...]

Mexico’s Electoral Tribunal on Thursday upheld the results of the country’s recent presidential election, after finding that there was no evidence that the winning candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto violated election regulations. Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the left wing Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD) announced in July that he was challenging [...]

The former secretary for the political party of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was referred to a criminal court for corruption charges on Wednesday. Safwat El-Sherif is accused of abusing his office and illegally obtaining $49.2 million. He has also been accused of using his position to obtain several pieces of real estate at dramatically [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would close its investigation into the CIA’s alleged torture and abuse of detainees, with no criminal charges to be brought as a result of the three-year inquiry. In June 2011 Holder accepted the recommendation of Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) John Durham to [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Delaware on Thursday struck down the Delaware Chancery Court procedure allowing for closed-door arbitrations for large business disputes. In a 26-page decision Judge Mary McLaughlin held that the Chancery Court’s rule allowing parties to opt for confidential, expedited arbitration , with one of the [...]

An independent UN human rights expert on Thursday condemned Israel’s dismissal of a civil suit brought by the family of an American peace activist. UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Richard Falk criticized the Israeli judge’s ruling, calling it a “victory for Israeli impunity.” The lawsuit arose from an incident in which American [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday urged authorities in the former Yugoslavia to investigate the enforced disappearances of 14,000 people who are still unaccounted for since the civil war in the 1990s. The report comes as the mandate for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is coming to an end. AI claims that [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Gambian authorities Thursday to enact an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty . The statement is a response to the execution of nine prisoners on Sunday following a 27-year moratorium on the practice. In addition to those executions, President Yahya Jammeh announced that [...]