UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Sunday denounced numerous violent acts along Venezuela’s borders with Colombia and Brazil resulting in at least four deaths and more than 300 injuries on Friday and Saturday. Bachelet received numerous reports of violent incidents along the borders as Venezuelan security forces and pro-government groups attempt to [...]
UN rights experts on Monday condemned the executions in Egypt of nine men convicted on the basis of evidence allegedly obtained under torture, and expressed their disapproval of Egypt’s disregard of the legal system. Egyptian authorities executed nine men on February 20 “even though an appeal and a petition to halt their execution were before [...]
Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed a criminal complaint against John Fry, an employee at the Internal Revenue Service, for unlawful disclosure of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney for Donald Trump. The complaint includes a detailed affidavit by Linda Cieslak, Special Agent of the US Department of Treasury. In [...]
Jeffrey Skilling, founder and ex-Enron CEO imprisoned for his involvement in the high-profile corporate fraud scandal publicized in 2001, was released from federal custody on Thursday after serving more than 12 years in prison. A jury convicted Skilling in May 2006 on 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors for [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU-PA) said Friday that it is nearing a settlement in a federal lawsuit challenging a controversial Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) mail policy in which photocopies of incoming mail be delivered to inmates instead of the original copies, which were stored. The ACLU-PA, joined by the Pennsylvania Institutional [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Central District of California on Thursday granted a twin son of a same-sex couple US birthright citizenship. The State Department refused to grant two-year-old Ethan Dvash-Banks citizenship but granted his twin brother citizenship. Ethan and his twin brother, Aiden, were born from the same surrogate mother; [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Friday for forces allied with one of Libya’s two competing governments to allow aid and medical workers into the Old City quarter of Derna, in Eastern Libya. HRW cites credible reports of civilians being “trapped there within the past two weeks without access to food, water, or medical care.” Libyan National [...]
A group of UN experts on Friday urged Croatia to immediately end abuse and violence against women during reproductive health procedures. During a campaign that began in October, more than 400 Croatian women came forward about maltreatment while seeking reproductive health care. The reports included doctors performing medical procedures without anesthetic and hospital staff humiliating patients. Some women said that [...]
A federal judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors broke federal law in brokering a 2008 plea agreement for hedge-fund manager and millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Starting in 2005, Epstein was accused of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually assaulting dozens of minors. His plea agreement, which was sealed from the public record, distilled these accusations into [...]
A German court Thursday fined gun maker Heckler & Koch (H&K) €3.7 million (USD $4.2 million) and delivered suspended jail terms to two of its former employees for illegally exporting assault-rifles to Mexico. The ruling concludes a decades-long investigation and court battle that exposed the illegal sales. According to the World Peace Foundation, “he accusations against H&K [...]
