Egyptian Prosecutor-General Talaat Abdallah on Tuesday ordered the arrest of all members of the anti-state ‘Black Bloc’ group, which has made its appearance in recent anti-government demonstrations and disrupted traffic and Cairo’s Metro line.

Abdallah directed police and Egypt’s armed forces to arrest anyone suspected of being affiliated with the group. He also urged citizens to provide any information they have about the group or its members and assist in their arrest by authorities.

Charges were brought …

Read more

During one of many anti-austerity protests last summer, more than 1,000 people rallied to oppose the Philadelphia District’s plans to “transform schools,” a pleasant euphemism generally meaning school closures and mass layoffs. The Philly district planned to lay off 2,700 blue-collar workers, including every member of the SEIU 32BJ Local 1201, the city school union representing bus assistants, cleaners, mechanics, and other workers.

In late July, the School Reform Commission scrapped those plans and approved a …

Read more

The National Rifle Association will appear Wednesday at the first congressional hearings on gun violence in the wake of Newtown – at the invitation of Democrats.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy invited the group to testify alongside Mark Kelly, whose wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was shot at a Tucson supermarket in 20 while she was greeting constituents.

The NRA strategy, at least according to prepared testimony, remains the same as it has since 20 children …

Read more

(Reuters) – At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday in a “new massacre” in the near two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Opposition campaigners blamed the government but it was impossible to confirm who was responsible. Assad’s forces and rebels have been battling in Syria’s commercial hub since July and both have been accused of carrying out summary executions.

…

Read more

After a group of bipartisan senators unveiled a plan to grant legal status to an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., California farmers lauded Monday’s announcement, saying it would help farmers more easily hire farmhands.

Farmers in the state have for years lobbied for immigration reform, citing difficulties in hiring labor to pick produce and do other farmwork.

Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau, the largest farm organization in the state, welcomed the …

Read more

With President Obama ready to unveil parts of his immigration reform measures this week, he is likely to call for increased visas for graduates with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or math. Obama advocated immigration reform in his inauguration speech, during which he said: “Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students …

Read more

Israel has admitted that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth control injections, according to a report in Haaretz. An Israeli investigative journalist also found that a majority of the women given these shots say they were administered without their knowledge or consent. Ethiopian Jews remain a marginalized group, often living in highly segregated communities. Because of this, many women’s and immigrant rights advocates believe that the 50 percent decline over the past 10 …

Read more

A Culver City man who was fatally shot by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after a police pursuit in November was struck by bullets five times in the back and twice more in the right hip and right forearm, also from behind, according to an autopsy report obtained by The Times.

Jose de la Trinidad, a 36-year-old father of two, was shot Nov. 10 by deputies who believed he was reaching for a weapon following a …

Read more

The Los Angeles Unified School District plans to make more than 1,000 new hires to bolster security at hundreds of campuses in a move some critics have called “security on the cheap.”

More than 400 LAUSD elementary school campuses are slated to receive 1,087 campus aides – a minimum of two on each campus – as early as March 1, LAUSD school board president Monica Garcia told the Daily News on Friday.

The $4.2 million plan comes …

Read more

A barge carrying 80,000 gallons of oil hit a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., on Sunday, spilling light crude into the Mississippi River and closing the waterway for eight miles in each direction, the Coast Guard said. A second barge was damaged.

Investigators did not know how much had spilled, but an oily sheen was reported as far as three miles downriver of Vicksburg after the 1:12 a.m. accident, said Lt. Ryan Gomez of the Coast …

Read more