Inbrief

An appeal court in the US has dismissed a lawsuit against the North American energy firm Talisman over allegations of human rights abuses in Sudan. Residents of an area in southern Sudan had used the Alien Tort Claims Act to make claims for injuries suffered in conflicts they argued were related to Talisman’s indirectly held Sudanese oil interests between 1998 and 2003. Last month the Court of Appeals upheld a 2006 judgment in a lower court that there was no case to answer. It said that while Sudanese authorities had ‘violated international law’ by attacking villagers to clear the way for oil exploration, there was no evidence Talisman had supported the attacks.