The Australian government reinstated its Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) in the Northern Territory on Tuesday after the Senate approved the legislation as part of a Social Security Act late Monday. The discrimination laws were suspended by the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act (NTER) in 2007 in order to allow governmental authorities to regulate how [...]

A Zimbabwean court on Monday denied bail to human rights activist Farai Maguwu, who is being held for allegedly supplying false information about Zimbabwe's controversial diamond mining practices to the international diamond control body the Kimberley Process (KP) . In denying the bail request, Judge Chinembiri Bhunu of the Harare High Court cited the severity [...]

A team of Belgian lawyers on Monday filed a complaint in a Brussels court against 12 Belgian officials accused of planning the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba , the first democratically-elected leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The complaint was filed only one week before the DRC celebrates its fiftieth year of [...]

Pakistani-born US citizen Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty Monday to 10 counts of terrorism and weapons charges relating to last month's attempted car bombing in New York City's Times Square. Appearing before Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York , Shahzad was asked a detailed set of [...]

The voters of Fremont, Nebraska on Monday passed an ordinance banning the hiring, harboring or renting property to illegal immigrants . The voters of the eastern Nebraska community of 25,000 approved the ordinance with 57 percent in favor. It requires all employers in the city to register for the E-Verify program and makes it a [...]

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Monday that he will lead a multistate investigation into whether Google violated privacy laws while collecting information over Wi-Fi networks for its Street View maps . Blumenthal said he sent a letter to the corporation last week requesting additional detailed information on its data harvesting procedures. The request was [...]

Sweden's international prosecutor, Magnus Elving, announced Monday that he would investigate the possible role of Lundin Petroleum in crimes against humanity committed in Sudan from 1997 to 2003. The investigation will examine allegations made in a report released by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) , which alleged that Sudanese troops attacked and [...]

The Supreme Court of India on Monday ordered the central government and seven state governments to explain the steps they have taken to reduce honor killings . The order comes in response to a petition filed by Shakti Vahini , a non-governmental human rights organization seeking the implementation of stricter laws against the perpetrators of [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 in Rent-A-Center v. Jackson that, under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) , the arbitrator has the authority to decide whether an arbitration agreement is valid, unless the plaintiff specifically challenges the agreement's delegation provision. Under the Restatement (Second) of Contracts , contractual clauses can be voided by [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in three cases. In Chase Bank USA v. McCoy , the court will consider whether a creditor seeking to raise the interest rate on a credit card where the cardholder defaulted must provide the cardholder with a change in terms notice. According to Regulation Z, 12 CFR [...]