Sexual violence in US prisons, perpetrated by both inmates and prison staff, often goes unreported because abused inmates fear a reprisal or do not trust prison staff, according to a US Department of Justice report released Sunday. The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) examined reports to prison administrations comprising 78 percent of the [...]
Opening an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Sunday, hours after an Israeli air strike that killed over 60 civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that "both sides in this conflict bear a heavy responsibility, and there is strong prima facie evidence that both have committed grave breaches [...]
Arab leaders have denounced as criminal and a breach of international law an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana Sunday that killed over 60 civilians – mostly women and children – as the Middle East conflict entered its nineteenth day. The death toll is the highest of any single incident involving non-combatants [...]
Iran will stop considering international incentives to end its uranium enrichment program if the UN Security Council passes a resolution sanctioning the country, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi stated Sunday. France proposed the resolution Friday after negotiations among the permanent members of the Security Council demanding that Iran end nuclear activities by August [...]
The seven judges of Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal Saturday heard arguments by lawyers for leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for a full recount of the July 2 presidential poll which Obrador lost by 0.6 percent to conservative Felipe Calderon . Obrador's legal team is arguing that there were errors, falsifications and other problems [...]
Over 20,000 Bangladeshis marched Saturday in the capital Dhaka calling for electoral reforms ahead of a nationwide poll scheduled for January. Peaceful demonstrations organized by a coalition of 14 opposition parties began Tuesday. The demonstrators were closely watched by police and security services on the alert for violence and what one official called "subversive acts." [...]
A frustrated New Orleans Parish criminal court judge said Friday in an emergency order that he will start releasing prisoners on August 29 if their cases do not go to trial by then. Judge Arthur Hunter asked, "If we are still part of the United States and if the Constitution still means something, then why [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial law against extremism that a Kremlin statement described as "aimed at improving the definition of extremist activity by classifying socially dangerous actions as extremist." Crimes embraced by the legislation approved late Friday following passage by the Russian parliament earlier this month include incitement to racial hatred, publicly [...]
CBS has appealed a Federal Communications Commission decision to fine it $550,000 for an incident in the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast when performer Janet Jackson experienced what was later euphemistically labeled a "wardrobe malfunction" that briefly exposed one of her breasts. CBS argued Friday in a filing with the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals [...]
The US House of Representatives passed two key bills late Friday in a blitz of legislative activity before its scheduled summer adjournment. A measure described by House Majority Leader John Boehner (D-OH) as representing "the most sweeping changes to America's pension laws in more than 30 years" passed 279-131 . The 900-page bill, designed to [...]
