Law

Ireland takes UK to human rights court over Hooded Men case

RT | December 4, 2014 The Irish government has asked the ECHR to reexamine the 1978 verdict of the Hooded Men Case. The Northern Irishmen involved seek justice after a new set of previously classified documents point to torture by the UK government in the high-profile case. The case in question involves torture allegations brought […]

Rapper may face 25 years in prison over ‘gangsta rap’ album

By Robert Bridge | RT | November 22, 2014 Brandon Duncan has no criminal record, but could face a life sentence of 25 years in prison as prosecutors say his latest album lent artistic motivation for a recent string of gang-related shootings. San Diego County prosecutors have charged Duncan, 33, with nine felonies connected to […]

UK Home Office issues threat against the functioning of democracy

RT |September 30, 2014 Powers banning extremists from appearing on TV and which allow police to vet “harmful” individuals’ social media activity would be enforced if the Conservatives return to power next year, Home Secretary Theresa May is set to announce. The party manifesto will also pledge to introduce time-limited Extremist Disruption Orders to curb […]

Crackdown on freedoms? Australian Senate passes draconian anti-terror laws

RT | September 26, 2014 Australia’s senate has endorsed new anti-terror laws that will grant its intelligence agency the right to spy on any citizen with just a warrant, while journalists and whistleblowers “recklessly” exposing special ops can face up to 10 years in jail. The anti-terror laws, which cleared the Australian Senate on Thursday […]

Obama administration ‘blocking’ information from the press – AP

RT | September 20, 2014 Uncovering information that should be available to the public has become increasingly difficult under the presidency of Barack Obama, an Associated Press bureau chief says. In some cases, it surpasses the secrecy of the George W. Bush administration. The White House’s penchant for secrecy does not just apply to the […]

US bans Europol from releasing its own documents to European officials

RT | September 9, 2014 The United States has instructed Europol, the European Union’s police agency, to withhold its own annual internal data-protection review from EU lawmakers because the report was written without the US Treasury Department’s permission. Europol drafted the data-protection report “without prior written authorisation from the information owner (in this case the […]

Guatemala defies ‘Monsanto Law’ pushed by US as part of trade agreement

RT | September 3, 2014 The highest court in Guatemala has suspended the controversial ‘Monsanto Law,’ a provision of a US-Central American trade agreement, that would insulate transnational seed corporations considered to have “discovered” new plant varieties. The Constitutional Court suspended on Friday the law – passed in June and due to go into effect […]

Fake cell phone ‘towers’ may be spying on Americans’ calls, texts

RT | September 3, 2014 More than a dozen “fake cell phone towers” could be secretly hijacking Americans’ mobile devices in order to listen in on phone calls or snoop on text messages, a security-focused cell phone company claims. It is not clear who controls the devices. ESD America, which markets heavily-encrypted cell phones built […]