The US Senate voted 65-31 Saturday to repeal the military’s controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT) , which prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the armed forces. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Repeal Act of 2010 on Wednesday by the US House of Representatives . Last week, the Senate fell three votes [...]

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard filed a lawsuit against Bank of America (BOA) on Friday for misleading customers in mortgage modification and foreclosure practices. Specifically, the complaint alleges that BOA violated a 2009 consent agreement, in which it agreed to develop and implement loan modification programs, by continuing to engage in widespread consumer fraud by [...]

A French court on Friday sentenced former Basque separatist leader Mikel Albizu Iriarte to 20 years in prison. Iriarte, also known as “Antza,” was the leader of ETA , an organization blamed for the deaths of 829 people. Iriarte’s partner Soledad Iparragirre Genetxea, also known as “Anboto,” was also sentenced to 20 years as an [...]

German prosecutors announced on Friday they are pursuing war crimes charges against two Rwandan men suspected of ordering the killing of Congolese citizens. The men, Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) leader Ignace Murwanashyaka and FDLR deputy leader Straton Musoni, were arrested in Germany in November 2009. The FDLR allegedly instigated the 1994 [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Friday declined to reconsider the appeal of Canadian-born media mogul Conrad Black . In October, a three-judge panel upheld two of Black’s four convictions, one for fraud and one for obstruction of justice. The court held that the other two fraud charges must be dismissed [...]

California’s Air Resources Board on Thursday approved measures that will provide incentives to companies and factories that decrease their greenhouse gas emissions . The provisions are envisaged under Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32) and include a permit system in which companies are allotted a quota of greenhouse emissions. If a company does not use all [...]

A French court on Friday convicted 13 former Chilean officials over the disappearance of four French citizens during the regime of Augusto Pinochet . The defendants, primarily high-ranking military officers, were tried in absentia, and one defendant was acquitted. Two of the defendants were sentenced to life in prison : Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, Pinochet’s [...]

Finnish telecommunications company Nokia on Thursday filed 13 patent infringement complaints against Apple in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. The complaints, filed in the UK High Court, Dusseldorf and Mannheim District Courts in Germany and the District Court of the Hague, Netherlands, accuse Apple of infringing 13 of Nokia’s patents, including touchscreen technology used [...]

US President Barack Obama announced Thursday that the US will support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People . The declaration, adopted in 2007, is a non-binding treaty outlining the global human rights of approximately 370 million indigenous people and banning discrimination against them. The US was one of four member states that [...]

A Turkish court on Thursday began the trial of nearly 200 military officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government. The 2003 Balyoz Security Operation Plan , or “Sledgehammer” plot , which included plans to bomb Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece into shooting down a Turkish plane in order to undermine the government, was revealed [...]