Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced on Friday that its researchers have proof that Russian forces have dropped cluster bombs on Georgian civilians during the recent conflict over the breakaway region of South Ossetia . Cluster bombs release large numbers of smaller explosives which spread out before detonating upon impact, a design meant to maximize bodily [...]

The Supreme Court of Thailand ruled on Friday that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Pojamarn Shinawatra will be tried in absentia on corruption charges . The couple are in the UK, where last week they announced their refusal to return to Thailand due to alleged judicial bias . The Supreme Court issued [...]

The AFL-CIO and three other labor groups filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Thursday, alleging that Wal-mart Inc. , the largest employer in the US, violated federal election laws by forcing employees to attend meetings where political and presidential campaign issues were discussed. According to a report by the Wall Street [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on Thursday that Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury did not violate the constitutional rights of voters who signed a petition to hold a referendum on a state law establishing same-sex domestic partnerships. Bradbury struck over 200 signatures from the petition after officials found that [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Thursday refused to grant a writ of habeas corpus to convicted murder Khristian Oliver , who had argued that his Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights were violated when the jury took Bible passages into account when deliberating on his eventual death sentence. The US District [...]

Andy Whitmore : "On the fourteenth International Day of the World's Indigenous People, it is right that we celebrate last September's adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People as an historic event for the worldwide movement of indigenous peoples that has arisen to seek redress for the serious denial of rights, [...]

The United States and Libya reached an agreement on Thursday to settle all pending lawsuits brought by US terror victims against Libya, including 26 lawsuits related to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The move is part of a continuing effort to improve diplomatic relations between the two countries. Under [...]

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday agreed to an en banc rehearing of a case brought by Canadian citizen Maher Arar seeking a declaratory judgment against US government officials for deporting him to Syria. The court originally dismissed Arar's lawsuit in July, ruling that he had failed to state a claim for which it [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Wednesday that it has reached a tentative agreement with ten US stock exchanges to centralize insider trading controls among the institutions. Under the plan, the programs to prevent and detect insider trading will be centrally controlled by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and a section [...]

A New Orleans judge on Wednesday threw out indictments against the so-called "Danziger Seven" , police officers accused of murder in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina . District Judge Raymond Bigelow ruled that prosecutors had violated state law by revealing grand jury testimony to a witness in the case and had also issued incorrect instructions [...]