A judge for California’s 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that neither Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Attorney General Jerry Brown is required to appeal last month’s federal district court decision finding California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Supporters of Proposition 8 , which banned same-sex marriage in California, had hoped the state would appeal [...]

Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang said Friday that last month’s trial of four men sentenced to death for a 2009 attack on the presidential palace was fair. Obiang stated that the country’s laws were respected, and procedures guaranteeing a legal, open and fair trial , including the guarantee of defense counsel, were followed. Jose Abeso [...]

Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) warned Friday that the genocide trial of Radovan Karadzic may take another four years—two years longer than expected. As the UN Security Council is urging the ICTY to close its doors, Friday’s hearing was called to discuss methods to streamline what has become the [...]

The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), a joint venture undertaken by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) , Austria and others, opened its doors on Thursday. Based in Laxenburg, Austria, the school is designed to educate public and private entities on the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and train [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Wednesday on Bahraini authorities to make a prompt investigation into torture allegations made by four Shia activists who have been detained for more than two weeks. On August 27, after 15 days of solitary confinement, Abd al-Jalil al-Singace, one of the detained men, was brought for formal questioning and arraignment [...]

Current and former international prosecutors on Tuesday signed the fourth Chautauqua Declaration praising recent advances in international law and urging countries to continue supporting the international courts in order to maintain the spirit of the Nuremburg Principles . The prosecutors, who have worked with the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Criminal Tribunal for the [...]

The UN announced Thursday that it will delay the release of a report that accuses Rwandan forces of committing acts of genocide in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the years following the 1994 Rwandan genocide . According to a statement by the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) , [...]

A criminal court in Thailand on Thursday convicted two members of the pro-government People’s Alliance for Democracy Network , known as “yellow shirts,” of defaming former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra . Yellow shirt movement founder and Thai media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul and his former television co-host Sarocha Pornudomsak were convicted of defaming Thaksin during their [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Wednesday denied the government’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services and several other drilling companies challenging the government’s latest moratorium on offshore drilling. The moratorium directive was issued on July 12 by Secretary of the Interior Ken [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that it has charged Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimulla Mehsud in connection with the December 30 attack on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Afghan outpost Camp Chapman that left nine people dead. Mehsud identifies himself as the head of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) , a Pakistan-based terrorist cell affiliated [...]