US President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced a ban on offshore drilling in almost 120 million acres of federally owned Arctic and Atlantic waters. As a preemptive opposition to President-elect Donald Trump, the goal of the declaration is to “protect the planet we share” and to protect the various environmental aspects in these regions, such [...]

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Tuesday announced criminal charges against four former state officials in connection with the Flint water crisis. Two former emergency managers, Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, were charged with four felonies —false pretenses, conspiracy to commit false pretenses, misconduct in office, and willful neglect of duty—and face maximum sentences of [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday rejected a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for information about the US government’s use of drones for “targeted killings.” A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled last year [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called Tuesday for a murder investigation of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte after Duterte admitted to killing people while he served as mayor of Davao. Duterte said last week that he had personally patrolled the streets of Davao on his motorcycle and had killed about three [...]

The Myanmar military’s “campaign of violence” against Rohingya people constitutes crimes against humanity , according to an Amnesty International (AI) report on Monday. According to AI, the Myanmar military is responsible for unlawful killings, multiple rapes, and burning down houses as well as entire villages. In October the Myanmar security forces reportedly launched a large-scale [...]

Police killings in India continue to go unpunished, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report Monday. Citing India’s National Crime Records Bureau , the report states that 591 people died in police custody in the five years between 2010 and 2015. The vast majority of such deaths are recorded as suicide, illness or natural [...]

Christine Lagarde, current head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) , was found negligent by a special French court Monday in her handling of a long-running fraud case involving a USD $400 million payment to French businessman and Nicolas Sarkozy supporter Bernard Tapie during her time as France’s finance minister. Lagarde will not be fined [...]

Apple on Monday launched a legal challenge to a $14 billion tax penalty that the EU has levied against the company. The EU claimed in August that Apple took advantage of illegal state aid from Ireland, where Apple has its European Headquarters, and ordered the company to repay up to 13 billion euros. Apple claims [...]

An Israeli parole board ruled Sunday that former president Moshe Katsav will be released after serving five years of his seven-year sentence for rape. After failing earlier this year to gain release, Katsav is to be released next week. Over the term of his imprisonment, Katsav was subject to fewer restrictions, including several day-long release [...]

An Iraqi militia, backed by the government, executed four men suspected of having ties to the Islamic State (IS), Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Sunday. Because the men were never tried, HRW claims their executions constitute war crimes . The human rights organization said that although the executions took place in November, the Iraqi [...]