WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to allow Indiana to block Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood clinics because they perform abortions.

Without comment, the high court let stand decisions by a federal judge in Indiana and the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that prevented the measure from taking effect. The 2011 law would have banned Medicaid funds from going to an organization such as Planned Parenthood whose work includes performing abortions.

Judge Diane …

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MEXICO CITY — Beatriz spends her days in a hospital room, anxiously watching her belly grow.

Her doctors say she is inching along a high-risk pregnancy that could ultimately kill her, fraught with risks caused by lupus and other complications. The fetus itself has such a severe birth defect that it has almost no chance of surviving, they say, urging an end to the pregnancy to protect Beatriz’s health before it gets worse. But in …

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At a time when the word “hacktivist” is routinely used to describe random brigands and petty vandals, Jeremy Hammond stands out as the real deal. In 2004 he urged DefCon attendees to target Republican National Convention delegates for “electronic civil disobedience.” In 2006 he was sentenced to two years federal for hacking the website of a right-wing group. In between he reportedly picked up a handful of minor arrests for real-world civil disobedience, including at …

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia began diverting a stretch of the Nile on Tuesday to make way for a $4.7 billion hydroelectric dam that is worrying downstream countries dependent on the world’s longest river for water.

The Horn of Africa country has laid out plans to invest more than $12 billion in harnessing the rivers that run through its rugged highlands, to become Africa’s leading power exporter.

Centerpiece to the plan is the Grand Renaissance Dam being …

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Despite court defeats and international condemnation, the government of Botswana is continuing its assault on the San by attempting to forcibly relocate another community from land they have occupied for decades, says the Khwedom Council, a non-governmental organisation advocating for the rights of the San (or Basarwa) people.

“It is another sad season for the San in Botswana as the government seems to have declared war on our people,” said Keikabile Mogodu, Director of the Khwedom …

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The ongoing row between WikiLeaks and director Alex Gibney (pictured) has intensified, with the whistle-blowing organization publishing an annotated and critical transcript of the filmmaker’s doc We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks – a transcript that Gibney says is incomplete.

WikiLeaks published what purports to be a transcript of Oscar-winner Gibney’s Universal-backed doc, which had its world premiere at Sundance in January, on Thursday (May 23), the day before We Steal Secrets had its release …

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Famous French smokers including the actor Catherine Deneuve and the novelist enfant terrible Michel Houellebecq have both publicly puffed on fake plastic slims while trying to give up smoking and retain a modicum of cool. But France’s love affair with electronic cigarettes could be about to hit a major stumbling block as the government considers banning them from all public places, including restaurants and bars.

The battery-powered devices which let users inhale a vaporized liquid nicotine …

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Fears that Muslim communities across the country are facing a sustained wave of attacks and intimidation have intensified after it emerged that almost 200 Islamophobic incidents had been reported since the murder of British soldier Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south London, last week.

That number includes attacks on 10 mosques and follows a weekend of protests by far-right groups, the largest of which saw hundreds of English Defence League supporters stage a protest outside Downing …

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May 27, 2013 |

In light of the historic resignation of one pope and the election of another, my Al Jazeera show Empire has travelled to Rome asking after the future of the Catholic Church as it bleeds worshipers and loses influence. As we take stock of the new Pope’s priorities, it’s clear that the role of the women in Church isn’t one of them.

Ever since the 4th century Christianisation of the …

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Russia has ended weeks of ambiguity and insisted that it will honor its deal to sell “game-changing” S-300 anti-aircraft systems to the Syrian government. The advanced, long-range surface-to-air weapons could deeply complicate any attempt by the US or Israel to intervene in the bitter civil war, which is now in its third year.

The angry statement out of Moscow Tuesday appeared to be a direct response to the lapse of the European Union’s arms embargo against …

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