Two police officers who shot and killed 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez in January, were "legally justified," Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey found. There will be no criminal charges in the case, ruled a defensive shooting. Hernandez was killed on January 26, while attempting to drive away from an alley in a green Honda Civic that was reported stolen the night before. [...]

Government regulators have cracked down on four cancer charities, accusing the Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services, the Children's Cancer Fund of America, and the Breast Cancer Society of cheating donors out of $187 million. [...]

America is the worst developed country in the world to be a mother, ranking 61st globally in maternal health, a groundbreaking analysis of global health inequalities has found. A woman in the United States is more than 10 times as likely as a woman in Austria, Belarus or Poland to die from a pregnancy-related cause, according to a comprehensive report, State of the World's Mothers 2015, publish [...]

The decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to bring charges against the wealthy peer and establishment insider Lord Greville Janner in connection with allegations of child abuse has been met with outrage among the general public and police. Janner, now 86, has been investigated by the police four times in the last 25 years. More than a dozen people came forward to say that they had been [...]

A mother who has taken flight with her son to prevent his circumcision could face a prison sentence if she fails have the boy undergo the procedure, a judge ruled, in a case that has become a rallying cry for ‘intactivists.’ The case, which began as a domestic dispute between Heather Hironimus and her husband, Dennis Nebus, over whether or not to circumcise their four-year-old son, has caug [...]

Ramped up surveillance in Britain against a backdrop of dwindling legal protection has contributed to the most rattling assault on human rights in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall, human rights experts warn. [...]

For the first time in two decades, through a spate of school shootings at the likes of Columbine, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut, more Americans say it is more important to protect gun rights rather than to increase gun control, Pew Research found. Pew’s latest poll on American attitudes regarding gun rights found that 52 percent of respondents are more concerned about the protection of t [...]

The lack of doctors and medicines in the eastern Ukrainian conflict zone is putting lives at risk says a new World Health Organization report, which describes the situation on the ground as "not just a humanitarian crisis." “No child has been vaccinated in the areas affected by conflict since September 2014, sending polio vaccine coverage down to less than 30-40 percent,” the WHO report rea [...]

The recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist Kailash Satyarthi has condemned the violence against children in Ukraine urging Kiev to act against it amid the ongoing crisis. “It is the responsibility of the Ukrainian government to save their citizens particularly children. [...]

The Russian government has decided to pull out of a major student exchange program with the US. The American side apparently violated the terms and conditions, with a Russian schoolboy not returning home, having been adopted by a gay couple. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a note to the US Embassy in Moscow, saying that the country is canceling the largest US-Russian educational excha [...]

All 200 trucks in Russia's 2nd convoy carrying humanitarian aid for devastated areas of eastern Ukraine have arrived in the city of Lugansk after weeks of delays that occurred despite an agreement on relief corridors in the Minsk ceasefire deal. Six of the nine trucks carrying medicines have been unloaded, RIA Novosti reports. [...]

Politicians clashed over the NHS at a Scottish independence debate. “Yes” supporters say independence could save the health service from privatization, while “No” advocates say Scotland can’t afford it alone. Independence is needed to protect against a “nasty, competitive, profit-driven motive” towards the NHS, Scottish Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie said Thursday. [...]

Ukraine may face epidemics of preventable diseases like polio due to a government failure to stockpile vaccines and organize inoculation, the UN's health body warned. The shortage is aggravated by devaluation and a planned ban on Russian drugs. The healthcare system of Ukraine was not in good shape to start with, and the political crisis and the subsequent civil war further damaged it, the Worl [...]

Nearly 500 protesters were arrested in three dozen US cities on Thursday as fast-food workers and supporters staged sit-ins and acts of civil disobedience nationwide to call attention to their low wages and lack of union representation. Organizers of the strike said that, all told, actions at fast-food restaurants occurred at about 150 cities nationwide, from Manhattan’s Times Square to Littl [...]

The United States is one of only three countries in the world that does not offer a monetary supplement to new mothers on maternity leave from their jobs, according to a United Nations study. The report, prepared by the UN’s International Labor Organization, found that the only two other nations that do not provide cash benefits during maternity leave are the absolute Persian Gulf monarchy Om [...]

Ukrainian army shelling has forever changed the life of a teenage girl near Donetsk, who is now lying in hospital with a shattered arm and shrapnel wounds. The teen witnessed 15 people, including children killed by falling bombs along the river's shore. Government forces first bombed the village of Zugres in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on August 14. Several shells hit a beach full of [...]

US President Barack Obama is reportedly considering options to move on immigration reform via executive action despite protests from disapproving members of Congress. The Obama administration has offered little in the way of details as a review of potential options by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security continues. [...]

Potentially hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children, have been made homeless in just over three weeks, UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunnes told RT. ‘Only political actions and influence can make a difference in Gaza,’ Gunnes said. [...]

Comedian Russell Brand used his web series The Trews to blast Fox News’ Sean Hannity for “using intimidation, bullying” and overall hypocrisy during a segment in which the conservative host berates a pro-Palestinian guest about Israel’s offensive on Gaza. A recent segment on Hannity's show is prefaced with the host asking why “is America’s largest Muslim so-called civil rights group [...]