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US court upends murder conviction of Blackwater contractor
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the first-degree murder conviction of a former Blackwater security contractor, ordering a new trial for the man prosecutors say fired the first shots in the 2007 slayings of 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad....
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A view of the modern area of the Catholic cemetery located on the southern hillside of Mount Zion in April 2024. In the background are the buildings of the Arabic neighborhood of Abu Tor. / Credit: Marinella BandiniJerusalem, Apr 27, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).This past February, the Custody of the Holy Land filed a petition in the Jerusalem District Court against the confiscation of a piece of land inside the Catholic cemetery, which is located on the southern hillside of Mount Zion and serves as a parish cemetery. The affair is part of a project to build a cable car running from First Station (the shopping and entertainment area in West Jerusalem) to the Old City's Dung Gate (the main access to the Western Wall and close to the City of David archaeological site), passing over the Hinnom Valley (or Geenna). The cable cars would be strung over some 15 pylons, from about 30 to 85 feet high, and would ferry up to 3,000 people per hour in up to 72 cars that can each hold 10 people...
Attendees lay flowers at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan to mark the 109th anniversary of World War I-era mass killings on April 24, 2024. / Credit: KAREN MINASYAN/AFP via Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).As historians and human-rights activists mark the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide this week, some are warning that Armenia is once again facing another existential threat.Speaking on "EWTN News Nightly" on Wednesday, Simone Rizkallah, an Armenian activist with the Philos Project, said that "this feels less like a remembrance and more like a truly historical event that we are in the midst of."The Armenian Genocide was carried out by Ottoman Turks in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenian Christians, according to historians. Though recognized as a genocide by the U.S. and more than 30 other countries, Turkey denies that characterization.The massacre took place over a hundred ...
null / Orhan Cam/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).The addition of "gender identity" in the Biden administration's interpretation of anti-discrimination rules could jeopardize state laws that restrict women's sports and women's locker rooms to only women, according to legal scholars.Late last week, President Joe Biden's Department of Education redefined the prohibition on sex discrimination in education, enshrined in the 1972 Title IX provisions, to include discrimination based on a person's "gender identity." The new guidelines prohibit any policy and practice that "prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity."Although the new guidelines do not clearly explain how the mandate would be enforced, experts at the legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the conservative Heritage Foundation told CNA that it could force educational institutions to allow men who...
