Aryad, 16, had fled conflict in Africa and reached the Polish border alone. He had just completed a dangerous journey and was traumatised. Unfamiliar with the asylum procedure, he was at risk of being returned to danger. His future looked uncertain.This is the kind of case Kids in Need of Defense, known as KIND, was…
A children’s hospital unit set up by pop star Madonna’s charity in Malawi now carries out more than 2,000 life-saving operations every year. It gives high-level medical care at a free public hospital. The Mercy James Centre for Paediatric Surgery and Intensive Care is at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. It first opened in…
Alicia Keys, 45, is now a mother of five (two biological children and three stepchildren). Motherhood came to her as an adult, but the instinct to look after children was there well before that. Long before she had children of her own, she was already caring about children on the brink of neglect.Alicia Keys was…
A United States Tax Court has sharply cut a huge tax deduction claimed by a Georgia-based partnership over land in Tennessee. The partnership claimed $74.5 million. The court said the land was worth only $500,000. In a written opinion, Chief Judge David Urda ruled against Lontrac Enterprises, LLC. He found that the value it claimed…
As space activity expands, increasing rocket launches and satellite deployments raise concerns about debris returning to Earth. For weeks, it may have been hiding in plain sight, tucked beneath rows of corn in an otherwise unremarkable Minnesota field. Then, during harvest, a farmer driving his combine came across an enormous metallic object that looked less…
In March 1969, a 21-year-old American soldier stationed in Vietnam decided to do something different from writing a letter home. Frank A. Kowalczyk switched on a reel-to-reel tape recorder and began speaking to his mother in Illinois, sharing updates about his fellow soldiers, life in the Army, family gossip and his plans for the future….
Representative Image (AI-generated) A divorce involving a Washington couple with seven children has highlighted how courts can divide family property and mortgage obligations without requiring a spouse to refinance a home. The Washington Court of Appeals, Division Two, ruled on October 27, 2026, that a lower court acted within its discretion when it awarded the…
Representative Image (AI-generated) Paint fumes drifting into a rented home can turn an ordinary tenancy into a question of health, safety and legal responsibility. In Redmond, Washington, tenant Eric Christiansen said fumes from an adjoining automobile-painting workshop made him ill and left his apartment uninhabitable. A trial court awarded him nearly $95,904 in damages after…
Bill Essayli Photo credit: REUTERS/Daniel Cole A federal judge has ruled that Bill Essayli has been serving unlawfully as Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor. The ruling represents a legal setback for the Justice Department’s effort to preserve Essayli’s authority, but it does not immediately remove Essayli from his position. Senior U.S. District Judge J. Michael…
Representative Image (AI-generated) A home renovation project can turn into a costly dispute when promised materials never arrive and the work fails to meet the contract. In Indiana, a couple who hired a contractor to repair a house and garage secured an $82,020 judgment against his construction company after a court found that it had…
