For years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought to keep secret its confidential files concerning pedophile priests. Hundreds of sex abuse victims hoping for a full accounting of what church leaders knew about the growing scandal and what they did to stop it were rebuffed time and again.

But the cover-up is finally coming to an end. On Monday, a series of memos and letters filed in a civil case confirmed that Cardinal Roger …

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Russia may have decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, but homophobia across the country still clearly remains strong: the Kremlin and Russian Orthodox Church are strongly pushing new anti-gay laws nationwide.

The legislation being pushed would make it illegal for anyone in Russia to provide minors with information that is defined as “propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism,” according to Time magazine. The law also includes a ban on holding public events to promote gay rights.

The new …

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The new mercury treaty will rewrite the rules on how the toxic element can be used around the world. But it remains unclear how the treaty will affect those facing some of the greatest health risks from the substance: small-scale gold miners in the developing world.

“The scientific evidence is so incontestable … and the health impacts are so debilitating,” says Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep). “We want to find a …

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France will send about 1,000 troops and armored vehicles to Mali over the next few days with the support of U.S military and intelligence operations, upping the ante in its effort to turn back Islamic militants threatening to topple the north African nation’s government, U.S. national security officials told NBC News on Monday.

French mechanized forces will join approximately 500 French troops already on the ground in the country, battling fighters from at least …

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Authorities in Guatemala are putting the lives of women at risk by systematically failing to protect them and ensure those responsible for the hundreds of killings that take place each year face justice, Amnesty International said today after it emerged two young girls and two women had been brutally slain.

On 16 January, the bodies of the two girls were found in a street in Guatemala City. Two other women were also found dead, in separate …

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BEIJING — Chinese authorities are responding to an intensified wave of Tibetan self-immolation protests against Chinese rule by clamping down even harder – criminalizing the suicides, arresting protesters’ friends and even confiscating thousands of satellite TV dishes.

The harsh measures provide an early indication that the country’s new leadership is not easing up on Tibet despite the burning protests and international condemnation.

For months, as Tibetans across western China doused themselves in gasoline and set themselves alight, …

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WASHINGTON — Less than a month after President Barack Obama won his second term, the National Urban League summoned Bernard Anderson to a meeting in the capital.

The invitation was no surprise. Anderson is giant: an economist and prominent author, the first African American granted tenure at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor and chair of the National Urban League’s Council of Economic Advisers.

The real surprise …

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The horrifying, little-known story of how hundreds of thousands of blacks worked in brutal bondage right up to the middle of the 20th century.

January 15, 2013 |

On July 31, 1903, a letter addressed to President Theodore Roosevelt arrived at the White House. It had been mailed from the town of Bainbridge, Georgia, the prosperous seat of a cotton county perched on the Florida state line.

The sender was a barely literate African American …

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GENEVA — The chief human rights official at the United Nations, Navi Pillay, called on Monday for an international inquiry into human rights offenses committed by the North Korean government over many decades. Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, called for an international inquiry into human rights offenses committed by North Korea.

Ms. Pillay, the Geneva-based high commissioner for human rights, pointed to North Korea’s “elaborate network of political prison camps,” …

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As President Barack Obama gets ready on Wednesday to spell out White House proposals to curb gun violence, three new national polls indicate a majority of Americans support most gun control measures.

But they are divided by political party, gender, age, race and education over some of the proposals.

The polls released this week came one month after a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The tragedy seemed to …

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