Court rules South Korea must pay for Sewol victims
A South Korean court has ruled the government has to pay compensation for the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster.
It is the first time a court has acknowledged the state is liable for the deaths.
The Sewol sank in 2014 killing 304 people, most of them school children.
Some relatives of the victims had turned down an earlier offer of compensation, insisting the state's responsibility had to be proven.
"The court acknowledges the liability in compensating the plaintiffs, since the negligence by the state and Cheonghaejin Marine Co. has resulted in the occurrence of the accident," the court said on Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported.
'Suffocating climate of fear' in Turkey despite end of state of emergency
Laws enacted after 2016 coup attempt are lifted, but Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears determined to continue pursuit of opponentsTurkey’s two-year state of emergency came to an end at midnight on Wednesday, but as trials of dissidents and journalists continue human rights campaigners have said Ankara must do more to reverse a “suffocating” crackdown on free speech.
Critics say the state of emergency, in place since a failed coup attempt in July 2016 that killed 250 people and wounded 1,400, has been used to detain opponents of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his government for lengthy periods without trial and to intimidate dissidents and prosecute media outlets.
More than 120,000 people in the police, military, academia, media and civil service have been detained or dismissed from their jobs over their alleged links to Fethullah Gülen, an exiled preacher based in the US whose supporters Ankara blames for the coup.
Salisbury novichok attack: Police 'identify several Russian suspects' in attempted murder of Skripals
Investigators 'are sure' Russians were behind attempted assassination of former spy
Police have reportedly identified the suspected perpetrators of the nerve agent attack on the Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal.
Detectives believe several Russians were involved in the attempted assassination of the former MI6 double agent and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told the Press Association: “Investigators believe they have identified the suspected perpetrators of the novichok attack through CCTV and have cross-checked this with records of people who entered the country around that time. They are sure [the suspects] are Russian.”
Israel passes controversial Jewish nation-state bill
Among other things, the law states only Jews have the right to self-determination, "encourages" Jewish settlement and downgrades the status of the Arabic language. Critics say it is racist and threatens democracy.
Israel's parliament passed a controversial law early Thursday that declares only Jews have a right to national self-determination in Israel, drawing criticism from human rights organizations and Arabs who called it racist and amounting to apartheid.
The "nation-state" law, backed by the right-wing government, passed 62-55 with two abstentions in the 120-seat Knesset after months of political debate and some parts were softened over concerns it would damage Israel's international image.
Nicaragua's Ortega-Murillo power couple toppled a dynasty – only to form another
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader, changed his political stripes and is now clinging to power alongside his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo. But the people are growing impatient amid continuing unrest.
The Ortega dynasty dominates the power elite and leaves little room for opposition in today's Nicaragua. Likened to a real-life “House of Cards”, it controls the country’s presidency, congress, military, police and the courts.
For Ortega, it has been a long journey from his working-class roots to the pinnacle of power. In the 1980s, Ortega was a Marxist guerrilla fighter leading his Sandinista movement in their fight against the capitalist, US-backed Contra rebels. Three decades later, Ortega presides over an administration that pays fiery lip service to the “people’s revolution” – complete with giant, illuminated cutouts of allies such as Venezuela’s late Hugo Chavez.
A new House bill would bar companies from using nondisclosure agreements to hide harassment
The bill has bipartisan support(!), but it probably won’t go far anyway.
By
Republicans and Democrats agree on few things these days. But some members of Congress on both sides of the aisle seem to agree on this: Businesses should not be able to hide claims of sexual harassment against them from the public, and they should not force female workers (or any workers) to stay silent about it.
On Wednesday afternoon, a bipartisan group of representatives will introduce a bill that would bar employers from requiring workers to sign nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreements related to workplace harassment. These clauses are common in job contracts, essentially making it illegal for workers to say bad things about a company, or from discussing workplace disputes, such as sexual harassment claims.
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