Human Rights | WPN World People News

Protesters in Homs, Syria

A federal grand jury has indicted Baltimore City Police Officer Daniel Redd, age 41, of Baltimore, Maryland, and four others on drug and gun charges. The indictment was returned on July 7, 2011 and unsealed today upon the arrest of Redd and the remaining defendants: Abdul Zakaria, aka “Tamim Mamah,” age 34, of Owings Mills; Shanel Stallings, aka “Bit,”age 32, of Baltimore; Dyrell Garrett, aka “D,”age 33, of Randallstown, Maryland; and Malik Jones, age 40, of Owings Mills, Maryland.

Mark John Walker, 52, of Eugene, Oregon, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Judge Ralph R. Beistline, who is a visiting judge from Alaska, to 10 years in prison for violating five victims’ constitutional rights to bodily integrity while acting under color of law. Walker engaged in sexual contact or aggravated sexual abuse with female offenders who were under his direct supervision as a federal probation officer from 2006 to 2009.

United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Stephen J. Johnson, 62, of Linden, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger to 21 months in prison for conspiring to obstruct justice, four counts of perjury before a federal grand jury, and two counts of making false statements to the FBI.

Seized opium

Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, called on governments to treat Internet access as a human right that should be enshrined in their constitutions, in testimony today at the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

Children from the Dom community are vulnerable to violence, chronic malnutrition, child marriage, dangerous working conditions and exploitation

These Somali refugees in northeastern Kenya are among those affected by the crisis

Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former real estate agent and a former loan officer are among five co-defendants who have pleaded guilty in federal court to their roles in an $11 million mortgage fraud scheme that involved upscale homes in Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs, Liberty, Parkville, and elsewhere.