UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday told officials at the Istanbul II Conference on Somalia that the Somali government must continue to work to ensure a smooth transition into permanent government and a new constitution in order to begin its next “political phase.” Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has been working toward establishment of a [...]

The UN Human Rights Council voted to condemn Syria on Friday for killing more than 100 civilians in the Houla region of the country last week. The 47-member body voted 41-3 to approve a resolution blaming “pro-regime elements” and government troops for the massacre in Houla. Russia, China and Cuba voted against the resolution. Two [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday urged the government of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to ensure justice for the victims of the recently increasing violence. It has been reported that more than 100,000 people have been affected by the recent violence in the province of North Kivu in the [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ended its investigation into the health care conditions of incarcerated former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko , finding that the Ukrainian government provided her with adequate care. Tymoshenko is currently facing trial on tax evasion charges but has been unable to attend recently due to health [...]

A New York state court ruled Wednesday that the family of a Holocaust survivor must return a gold tablet to a museum in Germany. The Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division Second Judicial Department ordered the family of Holocaust survivor Riven Flamenbaum, who died in 2003, to return the 3,200 year-old [...]

The Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of several inmates over solitary confinement policies at a California prison Security Housing Unit (SHU). The defendants are California Governor Jerry Brown, the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the Chief for the Office of Correctional Safety and a warden [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on Thursday in favor of Google in the case of Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc. . Judge William Alsup held that Google did not infringe patents and copyrights held by Oracle when it used Oracle’s 37 Java application programming interface [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Thursday blocked part of a new Florida election law that plaintiffs claim restrict voter registration efforts. Judge Robert Hinkle struck down a provision of Florida’s election law that required any group that conducts a voter registration drive to turn in registration [...]

A lawyer for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday defended the warrantless use of global positioning system (GPS) devices on suspects’ vehicles despite a January Supreme Court ruling declaring GPS tracking to be a “search” under the Fourth Amendment . In oral arguments before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday granted class action status to numerous authors suing Google over its book-scanning initiative . Judge Denny Chin reasoned that the numerosity, commonality and typicality elements for Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is satisfied. Google had [...]