The Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland ruled Friday that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) violated the law in February 2009 when it ordered UBS to disclose information to the US on more than 250 of the bank's clients. FINMA issued the order after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) accused UBS of assisting [...]

The Portuguese Parliament on Friday approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage . The bill gives same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples, but stops short of allowing same-sex couples to adopt. The bill was supported by the ruling Socialist Part and other leftist parties and faced strong oppositions from conservatives as well [...]

The US Supreme Court on Friday granted certiorari in Dolan v. United States , in which the Court will consider whether a district court may enter a restitution order beyond the time limit prescribed in 18 USC § 3664(d)(5) . The petitioner, Brian Dolan, attacked a hitchhiker and was ordered to pay restitution to his [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston on Thursday urged an investigation into possible Sri Lankan war crimes after authenticating a video of members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) being executed by members of the Sri Lankan military. Alston said that an investigation by experts in forensic pathology, forensic video analysis, [...]

US President Barack Obama on Thursday called for stricter airline security measures as he announced the conclusion of two security reviews he ordered after the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last month. According to an unclassified summary , the reviews found that the US [...]

Danilo Reyes : "The declaration of Proclamation 1959, placing a large part of Maguindanao province, in the southern Philippines, under a state of martial law was devoid of a constitutional basis. Thus, legal action taken against those accused of being involved in rebellion – those charged for the Maguindanao massacre, and evidence taken for its [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that sex trafficking violates conventions against slavery and forced labor, finding both Russia and Cyprus liable in the case of a young woman who came from Russia to work in a Cyprus cabaret and was later found dead. The case was brought by the woman's father, [...]

US authorities on Thursday announced charges against two former employees of security firm Blackwater in connection with the May 5 shooting death of two Afghans in Kabul. Justin Cannon and Christopher Drotleff each face 13 counts under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) , including two counts of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, [...]

The Iranian judiciary said Thursday that five people arrested during in last month's violent riots will be tried for Moharebe, or warring against God, which is punishable by execution. The names of the accused have not been released. The protests, which were the largest since those that followed the June presidential election , interrupted the [...]

The New Jersey Senate voted 20-14 Thursday to defeat a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in the state. The Senate Judiciary Committee had voted 7-6 in favor of the bill last month, marking the first time that any body in the state legislature had approved same-sex marriage legislation. The bill's sponsors, Democratic senators [...]