Iranian prosecutors have charged First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi with embezzling money, judiciary spokesperson Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi announced Monday. The spokesperson said he expects the case to go to trial . Conservative lawmakers say they have strong evidence linking Rahimi with corruption. Rahimi has previously denied lawmakers’ corruption accusations and threatened to sue [...]

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Toyota Motor Corporation settled US federal investigations on Tuesday by agreeing to pay a record $32.4 million in extra fines for product defects and poor handling of a recall. The fines stem from two investigations conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) . The first, a fine of $16.375 million, concerned nearly five [...]

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The National Assembly of Venezuela on Monday passed the Social Responsibility Law , which bans Internet content that promotes unrest among citizens or challenges legally established authorities. The law expands 2004 restrictions on television, radio and print media to Internet and electronic subscription services content. The National Assembly announced that the law aims to promote [...]

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The number of executions that took place in the US in 2010 was down 12 percent from 2009, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) annual report released Tuesday. There were 46 executions in 2010, compared to 52 in 2009. The report also notes that the number of new death sentences for 2010 is [...]

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Belarusian police arrested hundreds of demonstrators on Monday, including seven of the nine presidential candidates, who were protesting the results of Sunday’s presidential election . The official results, announced Monday, declared incumbent Alexander Lukashenko the winner of the presidency for the fourth time with 79.7 percent of the vote. Opposition candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, when arrested, [...]

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The FBI’s preliminary annual crime statistics for 2010, released on Monday, show a decrease in violent crime for the fourth year in a row. According to the Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report of 2010 , the number of reported violent crimes between January and June decreased 6.2 percent when compared to statistics from the same [...]

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The Sri Lankan Ministry of External Affairs announced Saturday that a UN war crimes panel will be allowed to visit the island to look into alleged war crimes in the final stages of the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam . The decision represents a reversal after months of strong opposition from the [...]

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Ukrainian prosecutors on Monday filed criminal charges against opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for allegedly misappropriating state funds during her time in office from 2007-2010. Tymoshenko, whose government was dissolved in March after she narrowly lost the presidential election to Viktor Yanukovych , is accused of misusing money raised by selling carbon [...]

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on Friday dropped a lawsuit challenging the US government’s Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) licensing scheme after the government changed the policy. The groups announced in August that they would pursue a legal challenge to the scheme despite being issued a license [...]

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