ST. LOUIS – A federal judge approved an agreement Tuesday between Ferguson and the U.S. Justice Department that calls for sweeping changes in the Missouri city where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry issued her ruling after a public hearing of several hours in St. Louis, where nearly three dozen people spoke and many others had submitted written comments. Perry said the settlement is a “reasonable resolution” that avoids an extensive court battle.
The settlement calls for diversity training for police; the purchase of software and the hiring of staff to analyze records on arrests, use of force and other police matters; outfitting all officers and jail workers with body cameras; the hiring of a team to monitor progress; significant municipal court reforms; and other changes.
RICHMOND, Va. – A Virginia high school discriminated against a transgender teen by forbidding him from using the boys’ restroom, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a case that could have implications for a North Carolina law that critics say discriminates against LGBT people.
The case of Gavin Grimm has been closely watched since North Carolina enacted a law last month that bans transgender people from using public restrooms that correspond to their gender identity. That law also bans cities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances, a response to an ordinance recently passed in Charlotte.
In the Virginia case, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also covers North Carolina, ruled 2-1 to overturn the Gloucester County School Board’s policy. The court said the policy violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination in schools.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Some 2,000 illegally trafficked elephant tusks and hundreds of finished ivory products erupted in a ball of fire Tuesday as Cameroonian authorities conducted what was believed to be one of the largest burnings of poached wildlife goods in African history.
Setting the pyre aflame in a sandy square in Cameroon’s capital, Samantha Power, America’s U.N. ambassador, joined Cameroonian officials in hailing the ceremony as symbolic of their commitment to win the war against illegal smuggling of animal products.
Central Africa’s forest elephants have declined in number by two-thirds between 2002 and 2012.
The heap included ivory chess boards, beads, totem poles and even miniature elephant sculptures, all intermixed with the raw tusks.
KABUL, Afghanistan – A week after proclaiming their spring offensive, Taliban militants stormed an Afghan government security agency with a suicide car bomb and gunfire Tuesday, killing 28 people and wounding hundreds in a sign of the insurgency’s continued strength even in the capital.
The coordinated attack in central Kabul appeared to have targeted an agency that provides an elite security force for high-ranking government officials, similar to the U.S. Secret Service.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
Associated Press
