Allegations of labor abuses dogged Mississippi plant years before immigration raidsLast August, Illinois-based poultry supplier Koch Foods settled a multi-year lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of more than 100 workers at the Morton, Mississippi, plant over claims the company knew – or should have known – of sexual and physical assaults against its Hispanic workers. Mark Kaminsky, chief operating officer at Koch, said the company admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement and maintains, after fighting the matter in court for more than eight years, that all the allegations contained in the lawsuit are false.

Verdict set for Cambodians who worked for US-funded radioTwo Cambodian journalists charged with espionage who had worked for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia said they were hopeful they will go free after their trial concluded Friday. Rights groups have characterized the case against Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin as a flagrant attack on freedom of the press. Prosecutor Seng Heang said in his closing argument that the two had been arranging to secretly send news to Radio Free Asia after it had closed its office in the Cambodian capital in September 2017.

US slaps Hezbollah financier with prison, $50 mn fineA Lebanese businessman designated by US authorities as an important financial supporter of Hezbollah was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million, the Justice Department said Thursday. Kassim Tajideen, 63, pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to launder money as part of a scheme to evade US sanctions. “His sentencing and the $50 million forfeiture in this case are just the latest public examples of the Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to disrupt and dismantle Hezbollah and its support networks,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski.

Dayton shooting: Man shields girlfriend from attack as Ohio gunman opens fire in unseen footageA man seen in videos using his own body as a human shield to protect his girlfriend from gunfire during a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio over the weekend has recalled the harrowing experience in an interview Thursday morning. Camryn Crowder grabbed his girlfriend and fell to the floor on Sunday as a gunman shot up a popular area for nightlife in the Ohio city just yards away. He can be seen in video clips holding onto the woman as others attempt to flee from the scene. “I saw people getting hit. I literally saw them fall,” Mr Crowder said. …

Former SS guard of Nazi camp, 92, to go on trial in GermanyA 92-year-old former SS private will go on trial this fall in Germany on 5,230 counts of being an accessory to murder, accused of helping the Nazis’ Stutthof concentration camp function, a Hamburg court said Thursday. “Surveillance was necessary for the concentration camp to function, and the camp was made to kill people,” Hamburg state court spokesman Kai Wantzen said of the prosecution’s argument. Wantzen said the suspect did not deny to authorities that he had served in Stutthof and said he was aware people were being killed.

Russian couple face losing custody of child after protestMoscow’s ombudsman for children’s rights and members of a presidential council have expressed outrage over Russian prosecutors trying to take a 1-year-old boy from his parents because they allegedly brought him to an unauthorized protest. The ombudsman, Yevgeny Bunimovich, denounced the custody removal request prosecutors filed Tuesday as “political blackmail involving children” and said he wrote Moscow’s chief prosecutor to urge dropping a criminal case against the parents. Prosecutors alleged in a court petition seeking the withdrawal of parental rights that Dmitri and Olga Prokazov endangered their son by taking him to a July 27 protest rally and handing the …

Body found in ravine in search for British scientist missing on Greek islandThe body of a British astrophysicist who went missing on a Greek island was found at the bottom of a ravine on Wednesday. Dr Natalie Christopher, 35, disappeared on Monday on the Aegean island of Ikaria, with her boyfriend saying she had gone for a run. Her body was found by a volunteer firefighter in a 65ft-deep ravine about a mile from the hotel where she and her partner had been staying. Asked whether the body had fallen into the ravine or been pushed, Theodoros Chronopoulos, a Greek police spokesman, said it was too early to tell. Dr Christopher is …