Although big Supreme Court cases involving gay marriage, corporate free speech and affirmative action gain more media and public attention, a proliferation of less noticed court decisions on seemingly arcane legal procedural rules are raising barriers to all American citizens seeking their day in court.

Behind the scenes, the court’s changes to Federal Rules of Procedure lead to dismissal of cases brought by harmed consumers, investors and other citizens before the facts are permitted to be …

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UPDATE—Iran’s interior ministry confirmed on Saturday that Hassan Rouhani, the standard-bearer of the reformist movement and a decided moderate in Iran’s political spectrum, will be the next president, succeeding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in August. His election means big changes, and a new attitude that will eventually carry over into foreign policy.

Celebrations, including dancing in the street, greeted the announcement that Rouhani had won.

Here’s an account by the Associated Press:

Wild celebrations broke out …

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Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, John Baird, responded to a win by Iranian moderate Hassan Rouhani in the country’s Saturday presidential election with a strongly-worded statement describing the poll as “effectively meaningless.”

Baird accused the regime of silencing “all open, meaningful discussion of key issues that affect ordinary citizens and denied Iranians the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of association” in the lead-up to the vote. The president of Iran has some political power, but …

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We built a shrine for him. A wooden cross, desert stone, rosary, and gallon of water mark where his body was found, thirteen miles north of the Mexican border in Arizona’s Sonoran desert, the deadliest migrant corridor of our southwest border. He may have stopped to rest, weary and sick from the walk north, and never woke up. Because only his bones remained, he is unlikely to be identified and his family will never know …

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A new set of classified documents disclosed Sunday suggested that Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has provided a trove of documents to The Guardian newspaper, had obtained a wider range of materials about government surveillance than had been known, including one document revealing how American and British intelligence agencies had eavesdropped on world leaders at conferences in London in 2009.

The latest disclosures, appearing again in The Guardian, came the …

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Taliban will open a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar on Tuesday, Al Jazeera has learned.

The office of the Afghan armed group in Doha will aim at facilitating peace talks.

In March, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, met the emir of Qatar to discuss plans for the Taliban to open an office in the Gulf state.

He discussed “issues of mutual interest” with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the state news agency QNA said, …

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As many as 20,000 Brazilians are expected to march in Sao Paulo today in what organizers vow will be the biggest yet in a wave of protests to rock Latin America’s largest economy in little more than a week.

Authorities are pledging to keep riot police at bay to avoid a repeat of clashes June 13 that left dozens wounded when rubber bullets and tear gas were fired upon activists protesting an increase in bus fares. …

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The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to hear a challenge to one of the the Obama administration’s most potent anti-discrimination tools, the statistics-based method known as disparate impact.

The case, Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action v. Mt. Holly, represents the first direct assault on disparate impact to reach the Supreme Court since the administration was accused of engineering a settlement that squelched another such challenge by the city of St. Paul, Minn.

By taking up Mt. …

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Edward Snowden Q&A: NSA whistleblower answers your questions

LiveThe whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history is answering your questions about the NSA surveillance revelations – follow it live now

Click here …

WASHINGTON — Arizona may not require documentary proof of citizenship from prospective voters, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7-to-2 decision on Monday.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, No. 12-71, said a federal law requiring states to “accept and use” a federal form displaced an Arizona law.

The federal law, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, allows voters to register using a federal form that …

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