A Guatemalan judge ruled Wednesday that three soldiers charged in connection with a 1982 peasant massacre that left more than 260 dead will face trial. Of the 17 soldiers accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 1960-1996 Guatemalan civil war , three were captured in Guatemala and four others have been detained in the [...]

A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer has been detained for allegedly spreading propaganda and colluding against national security, her family said Wednesday. Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is most widely known for representing political activists following the controversial 2009 presidential election , was summoned to an Iranian prison last week and has not returned home. Her home [...]

A Chinese Intermediate People’s Court in Shandong sentenced former top anti-corruption official Wang Huayuan to death on Thursday for taking bribes. Wang confessed to taking 7.71 million yuan (USD $1.13 million) in bribes while he was secretary for discipline inspection for commissions in the Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces. The purpose of the bribes varied from [...]

A Somali man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to piracy charges stemming from an attack on a Danish ship carrying cargo from a Texas-based company. Jama Idle Ibrahim pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to “conspiracy to commit piracy under the law of nations and conspiracy to use a firearm [...]

Pakistani police announced Wednesday the arrest of three men suspected of helping Faisal Shahzad plan and fund his failed May attempt to detonate a bomb in New York City’s Times Square. Officials said that the young Pakistani citizens, Shahid Hussain, Shoaib Mughal and Humba Akhtar, who were arrested following a long-running investigation, confessed their involvement [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Wednesday affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against a Boeing subsidiary in connection with its alleged role in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) extraordinary rendition program . The plaintiffs, Binyam Mohamed , Abou Elkassim Britel, Ahmed [...]

The EU Court of Justice (ECJ) on Wednesday delivered three judgments striking down gambling restrictions in Germany because the regulations were not designed to protect public interest . The suit was filed by several foreign betting companies attempting to break into the German gambling market. The court held that while monopolies are sometimes justified, Germany’s [...]

The Sri Lankan Parliament on Wednesday voted 161-17 to give final approval to the 18th amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution , eliminating presidential term limits. The parliament joined the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and the Cabinet , which have also voted to ratify the amendment. In addition to removing presidential term limits, the [...]

A Russian judge was killed Tuesday outside his home in the North Caucasus province of Kabardino-Balkaria , according to Russian authorities. District judge Dzhulber Bykov was shot several times by gunmen suspected to be Islamic insurgents and died at the scene. The Russian government has faced a growing insurgency in the Northern Caucasus, including deadly [...]

Murder trials began in the Philippines Wednesday for individuals charged in connection with the November 2009 massacre that left 57 dead. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court is conducting the trial in a high-security Manila prison in response to fears of witnesses being threatened. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Philippine [...]