LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2023--

A Dutch art detective dubbed the "Indiana Jones of the Art World" has recovered another six paintings, including a portrait of William of Orange and the...

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt has met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks that focused on elevating ties between the two counties

Russia’s desperate bid to rejoin the UN’s top human rights body with a charm offensive involving stolen Ukrainian grain and arms was defeated by a significant majority in a General Assembly vote on Tuesday. Russia received 83 votes from the 193-member UN, significantly more than the 24 countries who supported Moscow when it was booted out of the Human Rights Council in another vote more than one year ago. Russia was competing against Albania and Bulgaria for two seats on the Geneva-based UNHRC, representing the East European regional group. Bulgaria secured 160 votes, Albania received 123, while the Vladimir Putin-led nation managed only 83. In the run up to the voting, Russia made efforts to lure African allies and other friendly nations with stolen Ukrainian grain and arms in exchange for their votes – a charm offensive that experts said could work on some nations in need of the bartered goods. Moscow had claimed it had support from a silent majority at the UN, something which Tuesday’s vote shows was not the case. But experts said even its ability to win over 83 countries shows it maintains a surprisingly high level of support on the international arena. “I think the Russians will be pleased that they persuaded a sizable minority of UN members to back them (which) suggests that Moscow is not a total pariah in the UN system, despite repeated Western criticism,” Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group, said. That said, the US and Ukraine’s allies were still able to ensure that Albania and Bulgaria swept the contest for the two seats, he said. “So, Kyiv’s friends still have a solid majority in the assembly,” Mr Gowan said.Yousuf Syed Khan, senior lawyer at Global Rights Compliance, said that declining to accept Russia’s bid for HRC membership “means that vulnerable member states were not assuaged by Russia’s bid to provide arms and grain in exchange for votes”. “Today, Ukrainians and the world community alike can welcome this glaring diplomatic success,” he told The Independent. The US and its allies had discouraged many of the UN General Assembly’s members and asked them to vote against Russia, the diplomats aware of Moscow’s attempts to woo nations with grains said. US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council that Russia’s re-election “while it openly continues to commit war crimes and other atrocities would be an ugly stain that would undermine the credibility of the institution and the United Nations”. Russian envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the US of preventing Russia’s return to the council with its campaign. “The main phobia of our American colleagues today is electing Russia to the Human Rights Council,” he told a Security Council meeting called by Ukraine on last week’s strike by a Russian missile on a Ukrainian soldier’s wake in a small village that killed 52 people. Experts have called it a near-unprecedented event where the UN body has acted consistently for 18 months to suspend a member nation. “It is close to unprecedented that the UN Human Rights Council acted as it did 18 months ago, it being only the second time in the Council’s history that a member has been suspended for committing ‘gross and systematic violations of human rights’,” said Catriona Murdoch, partner at international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance. She added that the impact of this war on civilians and “the apocalyptic devastation it is leaving meant the stakes were higher with this vote”. The other closely watched race was in the Asia group where four countries – China, Japan, Kuwait and Indonesia – were candidates for four seats. While all were expected to reach the majority of votes needed and therefore gain a seat each, some rights groups campaigned hard against Beijing and the size of the vote was closely watched. Indonesia topped the ballot with 186 votes followed by Kuwait with 183 votes and Japan with 175. China was last with 154 votes. Additional reporting by agencies Read More UN set to decide on Russia’s Human Rights Council membership as Putin ‘uses Ukrainian grain to buy votes’ Putin’s shameless UN charm offensive - with stolen grain from Ukraine Russia tries to rejoin UN Human Rights Council Ukraine-Russia war – live: Moscow fails in bid to return to UN’s top human rights body

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a former guerrilla fighter and bodyguard who responded to being fired as vice president by unseating long-ruling autocrat Robert Mugabe in a coup

Iraq is urging countries that have citizens in a sprawling camp in northeast Syria housing tens of thousands of mostly women and children linked to the Islamic State group to repatriate their nationals

Australia has allowed a sexist culture to fester inside its parliament, a prominent lawmaker has told AFP, as sexual assault allegations again ring through...

The judge allegedly used a pseudonym to post videos of himself lip-syncing to songs with profanity.

Kelly Clarkson, the then-20-year-old waitress from Texas, has gone on to become a Grammy-winning superstar

The Clooney Foundation For Justice presents the Albie Awards honoring 'courageous defenders of justice'

Lori Vallow was indicted by a grand jury in Maricopa County for conspiracy to commit the murder of Brandon Boudreaux more than a year ago, Justin Lum of Fox 10 Phoenix reports. Vallow was charged on 24 February 2022 under the late Allister Adel, who was the county attorney at the time, he reports. Per to the indictment, Vallow and her late brother Alex Cox agreed that “at least one of them or another would engage in conduct constituting the offence of first-degree premeditated murder” on 2 October 2019. Police in Gilbert, Arizona, say Cox shot at Mr Boudreaux outside his home from the back of a jeep after he returned home from the gym that morning. This is the third time that Cox is named as a co-conspirator in a grand jury indictment of Vallow. First in the murder charges for which she was convicted in Idaho; second on the murder conspiracy charge in the death of Charles Vallow in Chandler, Arizona; and now third in the attempted murder of Mr Boudreaux. On Friday, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona announced that in addition to pursuing charges against Vallow over the murder of her fourth husband Charles Vallow, they also plan to prosecute her in the attempted murder of Mr Boudreaux. It was not known that she had been indicted by a grand jury at that point. The Attorney’s Office made the announcement after Vallow was found guilty on all six charges at her trial for the murder of her children Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, and for her role in the conspiracy to murder her current husband’s late wife Tammy Daybell. In July 2019, two months before the murders of the children, Charles Vallow was shot dead by Cox at the family home. He claimed he shot his brother-in-law in self-defence. The preponderance of evidence at Vallow’s trial in Boise, Idaho, suggests that his death was the first step in a wider plot by Vallow and her current husband Chad Daybell to rid their lives of “obstacles” as they termed their spouses and her children, as the court heard in text messages entered into evidence. Mr Boudreaux was married to Vallow’s niece Melani Pawlowski (she remarried in November 2019 to Ian Pawlowski, who testified at Vallow’s trial). Melani was very close to Vallow and believed in many of the same bizarre doomsday prophecies espoused by her and Mr Daybell. This ultimately ended her marriage to Mr Boudreaux with whom she shared custody of their five children. From evidence heard at Vallow’s trial, it is apparent that he too was considered an “obstacle” and — in their beliefs — a “dark” spirit had possessed him. Google location data showed Alex Cox travelling to and from Gilbert, Arizona, from Idaho in early October 2019. On 2 October an attempt was made on the life of Mr Boudreaux when he was shot at after returning home from the gym. He had earlier taken his older children to school and dropped the youngest off at Ms Pawlowski’s home. The shots were fired from the back window of a grey Jeep Wrangler that had had its back spare tyre removed. Video footage from a storage facility in Idaho showed Mr Cox and Vallow placing the spare tyre in a storage facility the day before he drove south to Maricopa County and then taking it back out a few days later. Mr Boudreaux gave heartbreaking testimony at Vallow’s trial about the end of his marriage to Ms Pawlowski and broke down as he recalled having to be the person who identified JJ Vallow’s remains. Questions linger over Ms Pawlowski’s involvement in the attempt on her former husband’s life. She was present in court in Boise for Vallow’s trial as her husband testified, but did not take the stand herself much to the surprise of those closely watching the case. Other women — Zulena Pastenes and Melanie Gibb — who were close to Vallow and involved in the strange rituals she conducted as part of their shared beliefs about the second coming did testify. Mr Cox died suddenly in December 2019, after telling Ms Pastenes — whom he had married shortly before — that he feared he would be the “fall guy” for Mr Daybell and his sister. Read More Lori Vallow has been convicted of her children’s murders. What happens next? Who is Lori Vallow? Mom-of-three, beauty queen – and now convicted killer Lori Vallow had two alleged accomplices in her children’s murders. One will never face justice Lori Vallow’s nephew-in-law says she’s not ‘inherently evil’ as she faces new charges for his attempted murder

Top officials from the campaigns of Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis made their case Friday to major Republican donors, as the two compete to position themselves as the most viable alternative to former President Donald Trump.