Accused Nazi war criminal and US citizen Peter Egner passed away last week at a retirement community in Bellevue, Washington. A US trial to revoke Egner’s citizenship was scheduled to begin on February 22 in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington . Documents filed in the court showed that a pretrial [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Monday struck down the health care reform law as unconstitutional. The lawsuit was joined by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and was filed last March. The suit challenged the constitutionality of the health care reform law [...]

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen announced Friday that he has reached an agreement with Google to avoid court proceedings over the company’s collection of private data from unsecured personal and business Wi-FI networks for its Street View maps service. Connecticut announced in June that it would lead a multi-state investigation against Google for possible privacy [...]

Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics indicated Monday that Hungary is willing to consult with the EU over its controversial new media law. In a letter responding to the European Commission’s request for more information regarding the law, Navracsics continued to defend the law but said his government would make modifications if it is found [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday denied the government’s request to put on hold all appeals in Log Cabin Republicans v. USA, a case regarding the constitutionality of the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy . The government’s motion requested that the court suspend its own appeal of an [...]

Thailand’s “red shirt” pro-democracy movement on Monday petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a preliminary investigation into whether the government committed crimes against humanity during the Bangkok protests last spring. The application for petition cites specific evidence developing a substantial basis to show that international crimes of murder, imprisonment and other severe deprivation [...]

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) heard arguments Monday from lawyers representing three former Khmer Rouge leaders regarding their clients’ continued detention. Nuon Chea , Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith appeared alongside their legal representatives, contending that, as a result of the court’s violation of the rules regarding detention, they should be [...]

The FBI reported to a presidential oversight board that between 2001 and 2008 it committed approximately 800 violations of laws, executive orders, or other regulations governing intelligence investigations, according to a report released Monday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) . The report summarizes nearly 2,500 pages of government documents obtained by EFF through Freedom [...]

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday defended an Iraqi Supreme Court decision finding that several independent agencies must be placed under the control of the government. Among the agencies affected are the Central Bank of Iraq, the Supreme Commission of Human Rights, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), the Integrity Commission , the Financial [...]

Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Council on Monday rejected a proposed referendum that would have extended the presidency of Nursultan Nazarbayev until 2020. According to the council, the proposal, which entailed cancellation of elections scheduled for 2012 and 2017, was inconsistent with the constitution . In an address to citizens on Monday after the council’s decision was announced, [...]