The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed $39 billion acquisition of cellular carrier T-Mobile USA by telecom giant AT&T . The agency filed suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia and seeks to prevent AT&T from acquiring T-Mobile from parent company [...]

At least 88 individuals have been killed while in custody as a result of their participation in the ongoing protests in Syria, according to an Amnesty International (AI) report released Wednesday. All of the victims were detained because of actual or suspected involvement in the protests for reform, most of which have been nonviolent, that [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas on Tuesday blocked several provisions of a new Texas law that restricts abortion practices and requires a doctor to perform a sonogram prior to the procedure. The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) filed a challenge to the law on behalf of a [...]

The Bolivian Supreme Court of Justice on Tuesday convicted seven officials—five military officers and two former cabinet ministers—of committing genocide. The military officials received sentences of 10–15 years while the former cabinet ministers received three-year sentences for complicity in the murders. The convicted leaders are not permitted an appeal . One commander of the army, [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Monday that an Iowa girl born two years after her father’s death was not entitled to his Social Security benefits. After the death of her husband, Patti Beeler used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive the child, known as BEB, with her late husband’s preserved [...]

The president of Vietnam on Monday ordered the release of more than 10,000 prisoners, granting amnesty to commemorate the country’s National Day. Although none of the high profile government dissidents was released, the president freed five individuals convicted of national security crimes. Eleven of the prisoners released are foreigners from countries including the US, Canada [...]

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday rejected an appeal filed by the Kenyan government and confirmed a Pre-Trial Chamber ruling refusing to transfer two cases stemming from 2007 post-election violence to Kenyan courts. The Kenyan government appealed the previous decision in June after the ICC announced that they were denying [...]

The UN’s Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Monday began conducting its fitness hearing to prosecute individuals for mass killings and other crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime . The hearing will determine whether the defendants are well enough to stand trial. The hearing commenced with two aging defendants who are [...]

The UN called Tuesday for all states to end the “heinous crime” of enforced or involuntary disappearances . Enforced disappearances refers to the practice of placing people in secret detentions for weeks or months without ever being brought before a judge. Some victims of the practice say they were tortured during their detainment. The UN [...]

Human rights groups Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday said they have evidence that the Sudanese army has committed war crimes in the country’s South Kordofan region. Researchers from the two advocacy groups visited the Nuba Mountain region of South Kordofan where they “documented 13 separate bombing incidents in Kauda, Delami [...]