The Constitutional Court of Turkey Wednesday rejected a bid to ban the country's ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) , which was accused of ignoring the secular principles of the country's constitution . Six of the 11 judges on the court favored dissolving the party, but seven would have been required to successfully pass [...]

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court Wednesday ruled that state laws banning smoking in bars are unconstitutional as they now stand. Smoking in public places is regulated on a state-by-state basis in Germany, and most states allow bars to designate a separate room for smokers. The court found that such laws unconstitutionally discriminate against one-room bars, and [...]

The Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina Tuesday delivered its first sentences of war crimes suspects from Yugoslavia's violent ethnic conflicts of the 1990s, convicting seven of genocide for their involvement in killings committed at the Srebrenica prison camp. Seven men convicted were given sentences ranging from 38 to 42 years; four others on trial were [...]

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has announced that health insurance company BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York has agreed to extend health-care benefits to spouses in validly married same-sex couples. In February, judges for a New York state appeals court unanimously ruled that the state must legally recognize valid out-of-state same-sex marriages. Following [...]

Officials from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have filed a motion with the US Supreme Court requesting permission to petition for rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana , in which the Court found that a death sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment when imposed for a crime of child rape in which the victim was [...]

UK House of Lords judges Wednesday denied the appeal of a man accused of hacking US government computers in 2001 and 2002 who had argued that his extradition to the US would violate his human rights. British police arrested systems analyst Gary McKinnon in 2002, and US authorities indicted him later that year on charges [...]

Council of Europe (COE) Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg Tuesday urged Italy to change immigration and preemptive crime policies that he says marginalize the country's Roma and Sinti minorities . Hammarberg memorandum was issued following visit to the country during which he reported harsh conditions in Roma camps and heard accounts of harsh treatment [...]

Serbian authorities Wednesday transferred Bosnian Serb leader and former fugitive Radovan Karadzic to the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to face trial on war crimes charges. Karadzic, who has been indicted on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, was arrested in Serbia last week after evading [...]

A DC federal grand jury Tuesday indicted US Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) on seven counts of making false statements relating to an alleged corruption scheme and for falsifying his Financial Disclosure Forms. Stevens allegedly accepted about $250,000 in gifts over an eight-year period from the founder of oil services and engineering company VECO Corp. and [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld seven out of 12 charges against two US border agents who were found guilty of unlawfully shooting an illegal immigrant smuggling drugs and then trying to cover up the incident. In 2006 Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were convicted [...]