A judge ruled on Friday that an alleged Halliburton/KBR rape case can go to court, rather than closed arbitration. Jamie Leigh Jones, a former employee of Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, filed a lawsuit against her former employers in May 2007, stating that she was drugged and gang-raped by a group of her co-workers in the KBR camp in Iraq's Green Zone in 2005.
No charges had been filed in the case as a result of a loophole in US law that effectively leaves contractors working in Iraq out of jurisdiction for US courts. Instead, conflicts between contractor employers and employees went to private arbitration. The issue received national attention after Jones went public, testifying at two Congressional hearings.
"We are extremely excited we can now go forward and present the case in the public arena and make the public aware of what been going on overseas in Iraq. Halliburton has ratified gross sexual conduct by their failure to act," said Stephanie Morris, an attorney for Jones.
6/18/2013 Supreme Court Strikes Down Proof of Citizenship Voter Requirements - On Monday, the United States Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship before being allowed register to vote.
In an opinion written [PDF] by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Court ruled that the Arizona statute violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA, also known as the "Motor Voter Law") of 1993, which created a federal form that individuals can mail in to register to vote in federal elections. . . .
6/18/2013 Pakistani Women's University Bus, Hospital Bombed - A bus for a women's university in Pakistan and the hospital that treated victims from the blast were bombed on Saturday, killing 14 students and 24 others at the hospital.
The bus was transporting female students and teachers from Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta, located in the southwestern part of Pakistan. . . .
6/18/2013 Taliban Attack In Afghan Capital As NATO Transfers Power - Yesterday, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) transferred responsibility for the country's security forces to the Afghan government after a bomb blast targeting a political official left three civilians dead in Kabul. . . .
