Members of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday filed an amicus brief with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit regarding the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) , which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages . The brief was submitted by 132 House members, including House Minority Leader Nancy [...]

Amnesty International (AI) and three other rights groups on Wednesday urged the UN Security Council to renew the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) , which is scheduled to end on July 20. In an open letter to the Security Council, the rights groups said that human rights abuses in the country are on the [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday said that press freedom in the Maldives has been deteriorating since the resignation of former president Mohamed Nasheed. Nasheed, who was the first democratically elected presdient of the Maldives, has claimed that he was forced from office in a coup, but current President Mohamed Waheed Hassan has [...]

A confirmed al Qaeda member and Osama bin Laden associate was released from Guantanamo Bay and returned to his native Sudan on Wednesday after more than a decade of detention. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi , 50, was released under the terms of a 2010 plea arrangement in which he admitted to supporting al Qaeda [...]

The National Assembly of Pakistan on Monday approved a bill that would shield senior officials from contempt of court proceedings. The move by the lower house of the country’s parliament is seen as an attempt to exempt the new prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf from a possible upcoming contempt of court proceeding for failure to [...]

Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) came together on Wednesday to urge the Sudanese government to end the detention and abuse of protesters in Sudan. In a press release, the two groups estimated that Sudanese security forces have detained more than 2,000 peaceful protesters since June. The groups said that the majority of [...]

A US citizen was released from a Thai prison Tuesday on a royal pardon that commuted a two-and-a-half-year sentence for defaming the Thai royal family. Thai-born Joe Gordon (Thai name Lerpong Wichaikhammat), 55, is a Colorado used-car salesman who was arrested last May while vacationing in Thailand because several years earlier he had translated and [...]

The Russian State Duma on Wednesday approved the third reading of a controversial Internet regulation bill. The bill, which gives the Russian government the ability to completely block access to certain websites, is described by its authors as a means of protecting children from harmful content. Opponents fear, however, that the government will use the [...]

The Maryland Board of Elections on Tuesday officially certified a referendum petition seeking to challenge the state’s new same-sex marriage law in the upcoming election. In a letter, the Board of Elections stated that the office had confirmed 122,481 signatures in support of the petition, a count that is well over the requirement of just [...]

The Constitutional Court of Romania stated on Tuesday that at least 50 percent of the electorate must turn out for the July 29 national referendum to decide whether President Traian Basescu should be ousted from the presidency. If less than 50 percent of the electorate turns out for the referendum, then the vote to remove [...]