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 [...]

The Parliament of Denmark on Thursday voted 76-24 to pass an immigration bill that will increase restrictions on residence permits and tighten penalties for violating residence rules and obligations. With the new bill, residence permits will provide fewer assurances to refugees. The bill amends the wording of the Aliens Act so that “residence permits granted for [...]

Indiana senators approved a hate crimes bill Thursday after an amendment to remove language on gender identity and sexual orientation. The bill passed 39-10 and would allow a judge to consider bias when imposing criminal penalties. The amendment replaced language in key section of the bill that removed lists of protected classes such as gender [...]

The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously Thursday to hold a new election for the 9th Congressional District following an investigation into impropriety involving absentee ballots. Currently, the North Carolina 9th District race is the last undecided congressional race coming out of the 2018 midterm elections. Leading up to the Thursday vote to hold [...]

A federal district judge tightened the gag order against Roger Stone and his attorneys on Thursday after an inappropriate Instagram post. The post contained a picture of District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson with crosshairs next to her head coupled with some incendiary text. Stone took down the post, removed the crosshairs, and put it [...]

The Vermont House on Thursday passed a bill intended to protect the legality of abortion in the event the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. H.57 passed late Thursday evening by a 106-36 vote, following Wednesday’s six-hour debate on the proposal of the bill. Under the bill, women in Vermont would have access to abortions [...]

The executive body of the Republic of China (Taiwan) submitted a bill to the legislature Thursday to legally recognize same-sex marriage. In astatement, Premier Su Tseng-chang acknowledged the national referendum last year, where the majority of the island nation’s populace voted against recognizing same-sex marriage. Su also maintained the Executive’s Yuan’s position that the decision of the Constitutional Court [...]

India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday found billionaire businessman and Reliance Communications (RCom) chairman Anil Ambani and two others guilty of contempt of court for not honoring an undertaking given to the court promising to pay dues to Ericsson India. Ericsson entered into a managed service agreement with RCom in January 2013 under which it was [...]