Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said Thursday that he believes the state's 2004 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage could prevent the state from outlawing sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in the private sector. Strickland created protections in the public sector by signing Executive Order 2007 – 10S , banning those forms of discrimination against state [...]

A study released Friday by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) has found a "substantial growth in the scale, scope and sophistication" of Internet censorship worldwide. The study, focusing on state-mandated censorship, found evidence of content filtering in 25 of 41 countries tested. The study found that states generally justified censorship as protecting property rights and national [...]

Authorities in Afghanistan have sentenced two Tolo Television journalists for "violating mass media law" and disobeying orders of the attorney general, according to state-controlled Afghanistan National Television (ANTV) Wednesday. In April, Afghan Attorney General Abdul Jabbar Sabet ordered a raid on the television network to bring in reporter Hamid Haidary. Sabet said Haidary had misquoted [...]

The US House of Representatives voted 220-208 Thursday to pass an amendment to the FY'08 Defense Authorization Bill to require the Office of the Secretary of Defense to develop a report within 60 days after the bill is signed into law, identifying the "current capacity at Department of Defense (DOD) facilities in the United States [...]

Nigerian union leaders Thursday called for a two-day national strike to protest the May 29 inauguration of president-elect Umaru Yar'Adua , who they say was elected fraudulently. The strike, which will involve both blue-collar and white-collar unions, is expected to begin with rallies on May 28 to protest Nigeria's April 21 elections , which were [...]

A court in India sentenced five people to three years in prison and a fine of $610 each Friday for their role in the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people and injured more than 700 in India's financial center. The five defendants had each been found to be guilty of transporting weapons and [...]

The United States, France, and the United Kingdom circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution Thursday, which if approved will unilaterally establish a tribunal under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to investigate and try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . According to AP, the resolution would enforce [...]

US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, a former staff judge advocate stationed at Guantanamo Bay , was convicted Thursday of one count of communicating secret information that could be used to injure the United States and three counts of leaking information to unauthorized persons. Prosecutors had argued during Diaz's court-martial that he endangered the [...]

Khaled El-Masri , the German citizen allegedly kidnapped by the CIA in 2003, is suspected of arson at a wholesale market in Germany and has been ordered by a judge to be admitted to a psychiatric institution, according to the German police Thursday. Manfred Gnjidic, El-Masri's lawyer, told AP that his client had suffered "a [...]

Secretary of State for the Home Department v E, England and Wales Court of Appeal, May 17, 2007 . Read the full text of the judgment. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.