UN human rights experts called Monday for an immediate end to the systematic detention and criminalization of human rights defenders, as well as excessive use of force against them. In the past three months, Cambodian citizens attempting to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly have suffered persecution and excessive force at the hands of government [...]
Fifteen Asia-Pacific countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on Sunday after eight years of negotiations. The countries include Australia, China, Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand and Malaysia. The 15 member countries account for about 30 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of global GDP, making it the largest trade agreement in the world. [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The court heard the argument by telephone with live-streamed audio. Fulton concerns whether Petitioner, a Roman Catholic adoption agency in Philadelphia, is entitled to discriminate against potential foster parents on the basis of sexual orientation. The city of [...]
Across Los Angeles this Tuesday the vast majority of voting centers are reporting wait times below 15 minutes. UCLA’s own Tom Bradley International Hall, one of two voting centers at the university, had no lines and plenty of poll workers waiting to help earlier today. If you had asked Anthony Silva, 24, whether he would [...]
A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday ordered that a former New York City accountant who admitted to scoping out the New York Stock Exchange for al Qaeda be released early from his 18-year prison sentence. Sabirhan Hasanoff, who goes by the name Tareq, originally pled guilty in June 2012 to “one count of providing and [...]
Pope Francis on Sunday named 13 new cardinals, including Washington DC Archbishop Wilton Gregory, an outspoken civil rights advocate who will become the first Black American to be appointed to the office in the Roman Catholic Church. The timing of Gregory’s appointment is noteworthy. Not only is it on the heels of Pope Francis’ recent [...]
The Ontario Court of Justice acquitted Canadian police constable Daniel Montsion Tuesday of all charges, including manslaughter and assault, in the death of a mentally ill Black man who was arrested in Ottawa in 2016. Abdirahman Abdi, a Somali-Canadian man, led police on a foot chase that culminated in his arrest. The police had Abdi on [...]
Burundi’s top court sentenced former president Pierre Buyoya to life in prison on Tuesday for the 1993 murder of Melchior Ndadaye, the man who had defeated Buyoya in the presidential elections to become the central African country’s first freely elected president. The killing of Ndadaye, which occurred four months after he had won election, triggered [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the cases of Torres v. Madrid and Pereida v. Barr. The court heard the arguments by telephone with live-streamed audio. The petitioner in Torres was operating a vehicle under the influence, and in the process of trying to get away, endangered the two officers pursuing her. In the process, [...]
Bangladesh’s Cabinet on Monday approved instating the death penalty as the maximum punishment for those convicted of rape and sexual assault. Previously, a life sentence served as the maximum punishment a convicted person could receive. In an effort to stand against the “government’s failure to provide security for women and the surge of rapes,” Bangladeshi [...]
