A Michigan court of appeals ruled Tuesday that medical marijuana cannot be sold at private dispensaries. The defendants are owners of Compassionate Apothecary (CA) , a privately owned medical marijuana dispensary that facilitates patient-to-patient transfer of marijuana using a locker system for patients to store and trade excess marijuana. CA retains 20 percent of the [...]

Accused war criminal Goran Hadzic on Wednesday entered a not guilty plea at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Hadzic had refused to enter a plea in July when he was extradited to The Hague , where he now awaits trial for war crimes . Hadzic was the last fugitive of [...]

Bangladeshi authorities must put an end to extrajudicial executions by government authorities, Amnesty International (AI) urged on Wednesday. In a report entitled “Crimes Unseen: Extrajudicial Executions in Bangladesh” , AI alleges that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) , a special police force, unlawfully kills Bangladeshi civilians regularly. Furthermore, the RAB justifies the killings as accidental [...]

A Thai court on Wednesday acquitted Pojamarn Shinawatra , the ex-wife of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra , overturning a tax evasion conviction. Shinawatra was convicted of tax evasion in July 2008 for transferring $16.3 million worth of stock to her step-brother and secretary, who were also convicted. Pojamarn and step-brother Bannapot Damapong were [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday concluded its first war crimes trial after two years. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leader Thomas Lubanga was taken into ICC custody in March 2006, becoming the first DRC war crimes defendant to appear before the ICC . Lubanga is charged with enlisting child soldiers in his [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on human trafficking Joy Ngozi Ezeilo on Monday urged the government of Thailand to improve measures to combat human trafficking , as well as protect the rights of migrant workers. The trafficking trade in Thailand is predominantly used for sexual and labor exploitation, with child trafficking especially rampant. Individuals are forced into [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday ruled that a music file-sharing site could be held liable for contributory copyright infringement. EMI , along with a number of record companies and music publishers, sued MP3tunes , a music site offering “cloud” music services, for copyright infringement. [...]

The National Election Commission (NEC) of Liberia distributed defective paper ballots for Liberia’s constitutional referendum Tuesday. Liberians were slated to vote today on four constitutional amendments, including a provision to change the election date to avoid the rainy season, as well as a stipulation to alter the residency requirement for presidential and vice presidential candidates. [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Rashida Manjoo called Tuesday on the US government to reevaluate its domestic violence policies . The request comes in response to a report published by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) last week attributing to the US government human rights violations against Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales), who was [...]

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday voted 33-4 to adopt a resolution ordering an investigation into crimes against humanity in Syria and urging the Syrian government once again to halt its violent crackdown against peaceful protesters. The UNHRC began a special session on Monday to discuss the possibility of an investigation after the [...]