At 10 a.m this morning, the Supreme Court Justices filed into the most important courthouse in the land, upon which the inscription ”Equal Justice Under the Law” is prominently inscribed. There they will be deciding the fate of millions of Americans to marry whomsoever they choose. Since the early hours of the morning crowds have gathered outside the Supreme Court to express their opinions on the Californian Proposition 8 and the even more controversial Defense …

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The bankruptcy of Chinese solar-panel heavyweight Suntech may be an omen that the sun is about to set on super-cheap solar energy.

The world’s biggest solar module manufacturer is on the verge of collapse under a pile of more than $1 billion in debt. The problem is not that the market for solar panels is weak. The problem is that there is too much competition among manufacturers of panels, which has driven prices down to unsustainably …

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc has sued a major grocery workers union and others who have protested at its Florida stores, the latest salvo in its legal fight to stop “disruptive” rallies in and around its stores by groups seeking better pay and working conditions.

Wal-Mart does not have union-represented workers in its U.S. stores. Nevertheless, it has long faced opposition from various labor groups including the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), and from a …

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A prominent Egyptian blogger handed himself in to authorities on Tuesday, a day after the country’s prosecutor general ordered his arrest along with four others for allegedly instigating violence with comments posted on social media.

The charges stem from clashes between supporters and opponents of the country’s Islamist president last week that left 200 injured.

Activists say the accusations against blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah may herald a wave of arrests of opposition leaders. They follow closely on …

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Not until Perry Gottesfeld pulled up to the front gates of Seigneurie in Cameroon did he realize the African country’s leading paint manufacturer was owned by a U.S.-based corporation.

“A big sign read PPG,” Gottesfeld, executive director of the nonprofit Occupational Knowledge International, recalled from his March 2011 visit to the factory. “We were shocked.”

The reason for the surprise: His research team had just discovered that more than 40 percent of Seigneurie house paints on the …

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Encrypted messaging services such as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp could be blocked in Saudi Arabia, the telecommunications regulator there is reported to have warned.

It is demanding a means to monitor such applications, but Saudis say that would seriously inhibit their communications.

Saudi newspapers are reporting that the companies behind the applications have been given a week to respond.

No explanation has been given of why the demand has been made.

Ahmed Omran, a Saudi blogger who runs the …

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In 2011, In These Times reported on the land grabs sweeping the Global South as wealthy investors look to cash in on rising food prices. Among those who stand to profit from such land grabs—which displace impoverished communities in Africa and Asia and threaten their access to affordable food and water—are a number of U.S. universities and the hedge funds that manage their endowments, including, until very recently, Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University.

Appalled by a 2011 report …

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Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment Wednesday charging Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun with six terrorism-related counts.

The announcement that Harun is in U.S. custody in New York may also shed light on a small part one of the most secretive aspects of U.S. counterterrorism operations during the Bush administration: What became of terror suspects held by the CIA in its network of “black-site” prisons around the world? Or disappeared into foreign cells in extraordinary …

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Twenty-five-year-old Manuel Diaz was hanging out in Anaheim on a sunny Saturday last July when two officers began to approach him. Diaz ran off, and Anaheim police officers Nick Bennallack and Brett Heitman pursued him. Moments later, Bennallack shot and killed Diaz—who was unarmed—on an apartment complex lawn. This week, the Orange County District Attorney’s office ruled that the shooting was justified.

Video taken immediately after the shooting is chilling. One bystander frustratingly screams out, “He’s …

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Two bills introduced Thursday in the House and Senate would compel law enforcement agents to obtain a warrant before affixing a GPS tracker to a vehicle, using a cell site simulator to locate someone through their mobile device or obtaining geolocation data from third-party service providers.

The comprehensive bills would also prohibit private investigators and other private individuals from using a GPS device to surreptitiously track someone’s location without their consent, thus closing a number of …

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