Tag: All Regions

A two-count indictment was unsealed yesterday charging five current and former correctional officers and one correctional nurse with federal civil rights violations. The indictment alleges that, on Aug. 6, 2023, former Garvin County Jail (GCJ) Sergeant Jennifer Baxter, former GCJ Deputies Alesha Danielle Ingram and Vincent Matthews and former GCJ Nurse Lynnsee Noel, while acting in their official capacity at the GCJ, in Garvin County, Oklahoma, violated the constitutional rights of a pretrial detainee, identified in the indictment as K.T.,…

The Justice Department announced today that it secured an agreement with Pennsylvania-based HCSG East LLC and its parent company, Healthcare Services Group Inc. (HCSG), a nationwide provider of housekeeping, laundry and food services for healthcare and nursing facilities. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that HCSG discriminated against non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States when hiring at its Siler City, North Carolina, location, and engaged in unfair practices concerning work authorization documents because of a worker’s…

The White House is listening to demands for President Joe Biden to extend the same grace to thousands of people wronged by the U.S. judicial system as he did to his son Hunter, officials say. Since Biden’s pardon of Hunter on Sunday, a growing chorus of civil rights activists and lawmakers have called for broader clemency for other people they believe were unfairly convicted or sentenced. Defense attorneys and civil rights groups are ramping up efforts to highlight compelling cases,…

As the investigation into a masked gunman who stalked and killed the head of one of the largest U.S. health insurers moved into its third day Friday, possible leads emerged about his travel before the shooting and a message scrawled on ammunition found at the crime scene. UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked from his midtown hotel to the company’s annual investor conference across the street, blocks from tourist draws such as…

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries said on Thursday it will transfer ownership of its business venture that sold generics in Japan to JKI. Israel-based Teva’s deal with JKI will transfer all the shares of the unit Teva-Takeda and its subsidiary Teva Takeda Yakuhin to the firm. Teva-Takeda is a joint venture established in 2016 by Japanese drugmaker Takeda and Teva, focusing primarily on the business of generic and off-patent medicines. JKI was established by a fund managed and operated by private equity…

A U.S. federal judge on Thursday rejected Boeing’s agreement to plead guilty to fraud in the wake of two fatal 737 MAX crashes, court documents showed. Boeing and the Justice Department now have 30 days to update the court on how they plan to proceed in the case, Judge Reed C. O’Connor of the Northern District Court of Texas ordered. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa)

McKinsey and Company Africa (Pty) Ltd (McKinsey Africa), which operates in South Africa as a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of international consulting firm McKinsey & Company Inc. (McKinsey), will pay over $122 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a scheme to pay bribes to government officials in South Africa between 2012 and 2016. The guilty plea of a former McKinsey senior partner who participated in the bribery scheme was also unsealed. The Justice Department’s resolution…

Vietnam has suspended the operations of Chinese online retailer Temu after it failed to meet a government deadline to register the company by the end of November. It is unclear if Temu, a unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, will be allowed to resume its business once it registers. The suspension comes after the ministry had raised concerns about the authenticity of Temu’s extremely cheap products and their impact on Vietnamese manufacturers. Temu said Thursday it was working with the…

South Korean prosecutors have opened an investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol, his interior minister, and the now-former defence minister over their roles in an attempt to impose martial law, Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday. Kim Yong-hyun, who resigned as South Korean defence minister over his involvement in Tuesday’s martial law order, also faces a travel ban as prosecutors investigate, Yonhap said. The other two do not face such bans. Citing unspecified threats from “anti-state forces” and obstructionist political…

One bitcoin will now set you back six figures. The cryptocurrency’s break above the $100,000 milestone has felt inevitable since Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president on a crypto-friendly platform. While it is just a number, it highlights how cryptos have carved out a place in modern financial markets. Some commentators joked that perhaps a sales pitch from children and grandchildren around the Thanksgiving table was enough to get it past $100,000 – after investors in recent weeks…

French lawmakers on Dec 4 voted to oust the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier after just three months in office, a historic move which plunged the country further into political chaos. For the first time in over 60 years, the National Assembly lower house toppled the incumbent government, approving a no-confidence motion that had been proposed by the hard left but which crucially was backed by the far-right headed by Marine Le Pen. Mr Barnier’s rapid ejection from office…

Mexican authorities detained more than 5,200 migrants across the country on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday, in a major sweep as the nation is under pressure from the incoming U.S. government to crack down on arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called on Mexico to ramp up efforts to stop both migrants and synthetic drugs such as fentanyl from coming into the U.S., threatening to slap tariffs on the southern trade partner. From Oct. 1 to…

Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has failed to properly manage and oversee contracts with private companies that provide medical and mental health care to prisoners in state-run detention facilities, according to a newly released audit. The failures resulted in hundreds of missed evaluations for suicide risk and a shortage of mental health exams, among other problems. The findings stem from state auditors reviewing three contracts over roughly five years beginning in 2018. The report cites understaffing as…

A U.S. Senate panel planned to take aim at airline executives Wednesday for the carriers’ growing use of fees for early boarding, better seats and other comforts that used to be part of the ticket price. The panel’s chairman, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he thinks the federal government should review and perhaps fine the airlines for their use of what he called junk fees, which he said raise prices for consumers. Blumenthal said seat fees are pure profit for…

Google Cloud said on Wednesday it had partnered with Air France-KLM to deploy generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology on the airline group’s data. Google Cloud said in a statement that the Franco-Dutch airline group’s 551 operating aircraft, 93 million passengers carried in 2023, and its commercial and cargo flights generated large amounts of data, which would be used by Google Cloud’s AI solution in areas such as analyzing passenger preferences and travel patterns, and predicting maintenance of aircraft. Air France-KLM…

A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the country’s Defense Ministry said Thursday. Miao Hua was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping. Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes…