Provides an overview of Kiribati, including key dates and facts about this Pacific island country.

Lakers coach Darvin Ham said he excepts Anthony Davis to play Friday night in Los Angeles, adding that the eight-time All-Star big man is “not showing any signs of anything” and is not in the NBA’s concussion protocol after being hit in the head late in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals

A bench trial has begung in Fargo in the federal lawsuit brought last year by two Native American tribes challenging North Dakota's redistricting map the GOP-led Legislature approved in 2021

Several coaches of the Hazara Express overturned near the Sahara station in the south of the country.

A global summit seeking to overhaul the international financial system wraps up Friday after taking small steps towards easing the debt burden of developing nations weighed...

Connecticut lawmakers have approved $150,000 for an election monitor for Bridgeport

Final preparations to discharge waste water from the crippled Fukushima power plant in Japan were under way Wednesday, its operator said, a day before the...

The last Indian journalist in China has been asked to leave, as Beijing and New Delhi eject each

The United States enjoyed its best-ever start to a Solheim Cup by sweeping the favored European team in all of the foursomes matches in the opening session to take a 4-0 lead in Spain

Paul-Henry Nargeolet is a pre-eminent expert on the Titanic who has been part of hundreds of expeditions to the ship’s wreckage

Days after the US Supreme Court struck down race-conscious university admissions, civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit targeting so-called “legacy” admissions at Harvard University. The lawsuit, alleging widespread discrimination at the college in violation of the Civil Rights Act, is the latest challenge to the practice of prioritising university admissions for the children of alumni. “There’s no birthright to Harvard. As the Supreme Court recently noted, ‘eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.’ There should be no way to identify who your parents are in the college application process,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the complaint on 3 July. “Why are we rewarding children for privileges and advantages accrued by prior generations?” he said in a statement. “Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process.” The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network. Last week, the conservative supermajority on the nation’s highest court ruled that private and public colleges and universities may not consider race as a factor in admissions, striking down the precedent affirmed in the 2003 ruling in Grutter v Bollinger. Civil rights advocates and justices who supported the decades-long precedent, intended to promote racially diverse college campuses, derided what they argue is the court’s ongoing perversion of the 14th Amendment and the foundational concept of equal protection. The latest lawsuit points to Harvard data finding that 70 per cent of the college’s donor-related and legacy applicants are white. So-called “legacy” applicants have a roughly six times greater chance of admission, according to records, pointing to a “custom, pattern and practice” that is “exclusionary and discriminatory” and “severely disadvantages and harms applicants of color,” plaintiffs argued. The complaint calls on the US Department of Education to initiate a federal investigation into Harvard’s application process and for the federal government to declare such practices illegal. “Harvard’s practice of giving a leg-up to the children of wealthy donors and alumni – who have done nothing to deserve it – must end,” Lawyers for Civil Rights litigation fellow Michael Kippins said in a statement accompanying the complaint. Following the Supreme Court ruling, Democratic lawmakers and President Joe Biden urged universities to reconsider their legacy admissions, which he said “expand privilege instead of opportunity.” The Independent has requested comment from Harvard. Read More Biden condemns Supreme Court striking down affirmative action: ‘This is not a normal court’ Biden reveals ‘new path’ to student debt relief after Supreme Court strikes down president’s plan Pence ‘doesn’t believe’ racial inequality exists in schools as he celebrates SCOTUS affirmative action ban

By Angelo Amante and Alvise Armellini ROME Silvio Berlusconi's 33-year-old partner Marta Fascina joined the late tycoon's family