Charges dropped against five teens accused of New York gang rape
(Reuters) – A New York City prosecutor said he was moving to dismiss charges against five teenagers accused of raping an 18-year-old woman on a Brooklyn playground after the alleged victim recanted the accusations she was assaulted at gunpoint.
Storm kills 4 in Virginia day after Gulf Coast tornadoes
RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) – Violent thunderstorms and tornadoes lashed the U.S. Southeast and mid-Atlantic region on Wednesday, killing at least four people in Virginia a day after twisters claimed three lives along the Gulf Coast, authorities said.
Oregon refuge protesters plead not guilty; more charges likely
(Reuters) – Protesters of a six-week armed occupation at a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of conspiring to impede federal officers policing the compound, a sign the long-simmering fight over federal control of…
Donations roll in for 97-year-old California woman facing eviction
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A 97-year-old San Francisco Bay Area great-grandmother facing eviction after 66 years in her rented home has received thousands of dollars in donations from people who see her plight as an example of growing economic inequity …
Connecticut prosecutors ask court to order Kennedy kin back to jail
(Reuters) – Connecticut prosecutors asked the state’s top court on Wednesday to return Kennedy family member Michael Skakel to prison to serve the last nine years of a sentence imposed after he was convicted of murdering a friend four decades ago.
Former Marine pleads guilty to killing girlfriend in Panama
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – A former U.S. marine whose American girlfriend disappeared in 2011 while the couple lived in Panama pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering and dismembering her, federal prosecutors said.
With new law, U.S. takes on slavery by banning forced labor imports
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – President Barack Obama signed a bill on Wednesday barring the import of goods produced by forced labor from entering the United States, throwing the weight of the U.S. market into the fight against global slavery…
Justice Department, Silicon Valley discuss online extremism
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department convened a meeting with social media companies and other groups on Wednesday to discuss ways to counter the use of cyberspace by militant extremist groups like Islamic State and support strategic count…
U.S. court allows Louisiana abortion restrictions to go into effect
(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday allowed Louisiana to enforce a restrictive 2014 abortion law critics say is aimed at shutting clinics, ending a halt to the measure handed out by a lower court judge earlier this year.
Brazil slave labor victims seek justice at Americas’ top rights court
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Rights groups representing scores of Brazilian workers who they say were trafficked into slavery during the 1990s said they expected the top Americas human rights court to rule in their favor in the first case of t…
