President Yoon Suk Yeol Tuesday pardoned former president Lee Myung-bak, who had received a 17-year sentence, along with another 1,373 South Koreans convicted of corruption and related offenses. Yoon said the amnesties aim to “serve to unite our national strength.” Yonhap News Agency reported the wide-ranging special pardons to include a long list of high-profile [...]

The Government of India Tuesday announced that it signed a peace agreement with the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF), an insurgent group in the northeastern state of Manipur. Senior officials of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Manipur government and representatives of ZUF signed the “Cessation of Operation” agreement in the presence of the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Tuesday reversed insider trading convictions against four defendants over leaks from a US healthcare agency. In the 2-1 decision, the court dismissed various fraud and theft charges against former hedge-fund partners Theodore Huber and Robert Olan, political intelligence consultant David Blaszczak and former US Centers for [...]

Colombia’s government program known as the Victim Reparation Fund (VPF), Tuesday announced that $5.7 million will be distributed to victims of paramilitary groups. The compensation is for 8,287 victims of the paramilitary groups of Central Bolivar, Mineros and Libertadores del Sur. The victims include individuals who have been forcibly displaced and victims of sexual violence. [...]

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Tuesday urged countries in Andaman Sea region to step up for helping rescue Rohingya Muslims stranded at sea. In contrast, the UNHCR welcomed Indonesian fishermen’s–in concert with local authorities’–actions which saved 58 people Sunday and 174 people Monday. UNHCR Representative to Indonesia, Ann Maymann, thanked the local communities [...]

The Ohio Supreme Court Tuesday unanimously overruled a judgment of the Ohio Second District Court of Appeals and moved that there must be “direct” physical loss or physical damage in the company’s computer software for insurance policy coverage. In the three-year court proceedings between the greater Dayton medical billing software maker EMOI and its insurance service [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk Tuesday called on Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to “revoke immediately” their latest policies that target women’s rights. Türk’s comments come in the wake of the Taliban’s ban on women attending university and working in domestic or international NGOs over the past week. Türk stated that that restrictions [...]

Recently, Thailand passed an important human rights law following significant pressure from many parties including NGOs, victims of torture, relatives of the dead and missing, and investigative journalists. On 24 October 2022, the King signed into law the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances Act which Parliament enacted on 26 August 2022. This [...]

A Michigan federal judge Tuesday sentenced Adam Fox to 16 years in prison for leading a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. In August, a federal jury convicted Fox on charges of conspiracy to kidnap the governor and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against persons or property. US District Judge Robert Jonker [...]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China Tuesday announced an end to certain restrictions on international arrivals posed by the country’s “zero-COVID” policies that have been in place since 2020. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin outlined a six-part set of procedures that will be effective starting January 8. Inbound travelers will [...]