At a UN press briefing on Tuesday, Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that some 700,000 people have been displaced in Syria over the last 10 weeks. The fast-growing number of fleeing people is a result of the Syrian government pushing north toward Turkey in an attempt to [...]

Rodrigo Duterte’s government moved on Monday to strip ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ largest media group, of its franchise. The move has been criticized as the worst yet in a series of attacks on press freedom by the country’s government. Jose Calida, the Philippine solicitor general, filed a complaint accusing ABS-CBN Corp. and a subsidiary of violating [...]

The Bangui Court of Appeal on Friday sentenced 28 militiamen to prison for a massacre committed in Bangassou and other areas of the country’s southeast in May 2017.  The victims in the massacre included dozens of Muslims and 10 UN Peacekeepers. The militia that committed the killings is the majority-Christian Anti-Balaka militia. The prison sentences ranged [...]

US Attorney General William Barr announced on Monday the indictment of four members of the Chinese military charged with hacking into the computer systems of credit reporting agency Equifax and exposing nearly half of Americans’ personal data in 2017. Wu Zhiyong (吴志勇), Wang Qian (王乾), Xu Ke (许可) and Liu Lei (刘磊) were each members [...]

Switzerland held a referendum Sunday, approving a measure to expand protections for LBGTQ+ populations but rejecting one encouraging parties to offer more affordable housing for rent. The initial results from the move to increase protections for LGBTQ+ populations came in part from a popular vote on a proposed amendment of the December 14, 2018, Criminal [...]

The French agency in charge of competition, consumer affairs, and fraud prevention (DGCCRF) has issued a 25 million euro fine against Apple for failing to warn owners of older iPhone models that updating the operating system would result in slower operation. In January 2018 the agency began investigating concerns that updating older iPhones to iOS [...]

Indian authorities extended the detention of two former top elected officials of Kashmir on Thursday under the Public Safety Act (PSA), a controversial law that allows authorities to imprison someone for up to two years without trial, officials said on Friday. Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah originally held under a law allowing only a six-month [...]

Brasilia-based Judge Ricardo Leite rejected a motion to proceed with cybercrime charges against American journalist Glenn Greenwald on Thursday.  In his decision, Leite invoked an earlier injunction granted by Judge Gilmar Mendes in the Supreme Court that prohibited investigations into Greenwald. Mendes cited constitutional freedoms of press and expression, as well as invoked the UN Declaration [...]

Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice, the nation’s second-highest court, ruled Wednesday that Uber drivers are independent contractors and not employees of Uber. The case originated after a driver sued Uber in Minas Gerais, Brazil, seeking relief for lost income after Uber deactivated his driver account. Lower courts in Brazil have been wrestling with the issue [...]

Nepalese officials announced Thursday that there will be a third gender option in the next population census, marking the first time the LGBTQ+ community has been included in the population statistics as a minority group. The Central Bureau of Statistics will publish the survey in 2021, which campaigners believe will grant better access to healthcare [...]