US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the US withdrawal from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) as a retaliation against China and other foreign nations that “undermine the goal of unrestricted and undistorted competition in cross-border delivery services.” The UPU, conceived in 1873 by the US and four other countries, acts as a regulatory body [...]

International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, said Wednesday that Israel’s planned demolition of Bedouin village Khan al-Amar in the West Bank could constitute a war crime. “Evacuation by force now appears imminent,” she said. “It bears recalling, as a general matter, that extensive destruction of property without military necessity and population transfers in [...]

Australia’s proposed cybersecurity bill is “fatally flawed” and should be dropped, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy said Thursday. The expert stated that it was “a poorly conceived national security measure equally as likely to endanger security as not.” The proposed legislation would force tech companies “to help spy on citizens in [...]

The World Health Organization, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UN Women issued a joint statement Wednesday calling on governments, health professionals and communities to take steps to end the practice of “virginity testing.” After a comprehensive systematic review of “virginity testing,” the practice of examining women to determine whether [...]

Civilians in the Western Equatoria region of South Sudan are facing extreme human rights abuses, according to a UN report released Thursday. Between April and August, there were reported attacks against villages and civilians, causing 24,000 people to leave their homes. The UN alleges that these attacks were perpetrated by the pro-Riek Machar Sudan People’s [...]

US President Donald Trump’s administration is urging Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to stop the Honduran “caravan” that has accumulated thousands more migrants while making the trek through South and Central America to the US border, saying the US will cut off aid to the countries if the immigrants make it to the US border. Honduran migrants began [...]

A Canadian law took effect on Wednesday legalizing the sale of marijuana for recreational consumption. The Cannabis Act will “provide legal access to cannabis” and “control and regulate its production, distribution and sale.” Anyone over the 18 is legally permitted to possess at most 30 grams of cannabis. People in Canada are also permitted to [...]

Egypt’s top appeals court, the Court of Cassation, on Monday upheld former president Mohammed Morsi’s three-year prison sentence for insulting the judiciary. The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Morsi and 19 others in December for inciting hatred through TV and media comments. Morsi and other defendants appealed, but the court rejected the appeal and ordered the sentence [...]

A London Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned the “excessive sentencing” imposed on three anti-fracking protesters in Lancashire. The activists, Simon Blevins, Richard Roberts and Rich Loizou, were convicted of causing a public nuisance for their role in a 100-hour blockade on a drilling site and were handed  a 15-16 month sentence. Lord chief justice, [...]

Audi AG announced on Tuesday that it has been fined €800 million (USD $926 million) in Germany for emissions failures. The fines were leveled by the Munich II public prosecutor. Of the total fine, €5 million is from negligent regulatory offences, and the remaining €795 million is from disgorgement of economic benefits. The fines also [...]