A gay rights group urged the US Supreme Court on Tuesday to review a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that denies benefits to married same-sex couples. The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) specifically challenged Section 3 of DOMA, which restricts tax, health care and other benefits of marriage to married [...]

German prosecutors announced Wednesday that they are contemplating charges against an 87-year-old man suspected of having been a Nazi prison guard. The German special prosecutors’ office that pursues Nazi-era crimes is recommending that charges be filed against the man alleged to have served as an SS guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War [...]

An Iraqi man pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky Tuesday on charges of conspiring to aid terrorists. Mohaned Shareef Hammadi pleaded guilty to 10 charges including sending money, weapons and explosives to al Qaeda in Iraq. Hammadi also pleaded guilty to two counts of lying to the US [...]

The World Trade Organization (WTO) admitted the Russian Federation as its 156th member on Wednesday, bringing to a close accession negotiations that began in June 1993. The lower house of the Russian parliament ratified the WTO accession package protocol in July, clearing the way for Russia’s membership in the global trading system after 19 years [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona heard arguments on Tuesday concerning whether to enjoin a controversial provision of Arizona’s immigration law that requires law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of persons they stop or arrest if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples James Anaya on Wednesday called on US officials to consult with Native Americans in North Dakota about the scheduled sale of land in the Black Hills region of the state. Anaya noted that local Dakota, Lakota and Nakota peoples expressed concern about the sale of [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a set of regulations issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) that provide legal protection to oil companies if the companies incidentally harm small numbers of walruses or polar bears . The Ninth Circuit held that oil companies operating off the [...]

A Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced a former police chief to 70 years for the kidnapping of a college student during the country’s 36-year Civil War . Pedro Garcia was convicted of carrying out the kidnapping of engineering student Edgar Saenz, who disappeared in 1981. Garcia will also face additional charges of murder associated with [...]

Police in Bangladesh arrested a top member of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Wednesday after a war crimes court ordered his arrest hours earlier. The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) issued a warrant for the arrest of ATM Azharul Islam and ordered police to bring him before the court within 24 hours. Islam faces charges of war [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday lifted an injunction that blocked a Texas law forbidding any clinic affiliated with abortion providers from receiving public funds. The state of Texas vowed to cut funding for Planned Parenthood after the Fifth Circuit reversed a temporary injunction that allowed state funding for clinics [...]