Now that the U.S. government has acknowledged that Western-built chemical weapons sickened U.S. soldiers in Iraq, The New York Times says the CIA can no longer deny access to records about it. The Pentagon acknowledged that more than 600 U.S. soldiers had been exposed to sarin in Iraq. The CDC links the chemicals to burns, blisters, infertility, eye damage, scarring of the respiratory system, and cancer risk. The military denied medical care to soldiers who were wounded by these weapons.   read more

The rapid escalation of border enforcement over the past three decades has backfired as a strategy to control undocumented immigration between Mexico and the U.S., according to new research that suggests further militarization of the border is a waste of money. "Rather than stopping undocumented Mexicans from coming to the U.S., greater enforcement stopped them from going home," said one of the researchers. "Greater enforcement also increased the risk of death and injury during border crossing."   read more

De Jaray says she was "collateral damage" in Canada's attempt to curry favor with the U.S. "Canada began targeting its own citizens in order to create the perception that Canada was 'tough on crime' and, in particular, terrorism, to win favor with the United States and secure contracts for military goods and services," the complaint states. "Ms. De Jaray lost her home, her business, her savings, her health... Ms. de Jaray's life was destroyed...without evidence and without reason."   read more

Dostum’s ascent to power in Afghanistan exemplifies a central U.S. failure in the war. The U.S. has built and paid for a government that is filled with warlords and power brokers whom U.S. officials say pose as much of a threat to the stability of Afghanistan as the insurgents. Now the U.S. had to deny a visa to the No. 2 official, an alleged war criminal, in a government whose survival depends on the presence of nearly 10,000 U.S. troops and tens of billions of dollars a year in assistance.   read more

De Sousa has exhausted her appeals in the Italian judicial system. It is not clear whether, upon her return to Italy, she would immediately begin serving her prison term, which would last a minimum of four years. Portuguese courts have stated that De Sousa, once sent to Italy, should have the right to a new trial, or at least the opportunity to present new evidence and witnesses in an appeal. But one of the Italian prosecutors said she would be sent straight to prison, “and that’s that."   read more

Saleh sought to turn the focus away from his own case to the experience of millions of Syrians who find the world’s borders closed to them. “In any airport, the treatment we get as Syrians is different,” he said. “The way they look at us, we are suspected.” Said USAID's Gayle Smith: "Raed and his colleagues don’t run away. They run toward the bombs, protected only by their white helmets and driven by a simple belief inspired by the Quran — to save one life is to save humanity.”   read more

With New York bracing for a primary Tuesday, both Democratic candidates came out in favor of Schumer's bill, though Bernie Sanders hit the issue harder and sooner than Hillary Clinton. While both backed the legislation, the Vermont senator went farther in calling for more sunlight to shine on the Saudi section of the 9/11 commission's report. "The families of those lost on that terrible day have the right to review any evidence that connects the hijackers to foreign supporters..." he said.   read more

Sounding the alarm over the current deal, national privacy watchdogs from France, Germany and other EU member states say they worry that U.S. companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon could misuse data, including information from search engine queries and social media posts. They also say they fear that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies might gain access to European citizens’ personal information without sufficient safeguards in place.   read more

Exactly how 32 American lobsters wound up in Swedish waters isn't clear. But many suspect they were exported to Europe and then either escaped or were set free by animal rights activists. Whatever the case, their discovery has set off a high-stakes trade dispute between Sweden on one side and the U.S. and Canada on the other. The North Americans are recruiting members of Maine's congressional delegation and U.S. ambassadors and asking Secretary of State John Kerry and the White House for help.   read more

The spill that TransCanada officials initially called “small in scope” released almost 17,000 gallons of oil into South Dakota farmland near the small town of Freeman, according to the company’s most recent estimates. TransCanada crews have been at the site of the spill around the clock since it was discovered last weekend by local landowner Loren Shultz. So far, they have excavated 100 miles of pipeline in search of the spill’s source, according to the Associated Press   read more

Ramon Fonseca, who started the firm with Jurgen Mossack, said their law firm has only a handful of American clients, most of them members of Panama's burgeoning expat retirement community. It's not out of any anti-Americanism or fear of the IRS. "My partner is German, and I lived in Europe, and our focus has always been the European and Latin American market," said Fonseca. "He loves the U.S. a lot, and I do, too. [But] as a policy we prefer not to have American clients."   read more

A terrorist hoping to buy an anti-aircraft weapon in recent years needed to look no further than Facebook, which has been hosting sprawling online arms bazaars to sell military weapons coveted by terrorists and militants. Among the weapons displayed have been heavy machine guns on mounts that are designed for anti-aircraft roles, and more sophisticated and menacing systems, including guided anti-tank missiles and an early generation of shoulder-fired heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles.   read more

The group said it found fragments of two U.S.-made bombs at the market, linking the U.S. for the first time to the airstrikes, which were believed to be the deadliest coalition bombings during Yemen’s yearlong civil war. The high death toll, along with images of children killed in the blasts, ignited international outrage. The debate in the U.S. over the airstrikes has been much more muted, in part because the Obama administration has provided few details about its role.   read more

A federal court has ruled that the lending arm of the World Bank has absolute immunity and thus cannot be sued in the U.S. Fishing communities sued IFC over destruction of their livelihoods and property and health threats caused by a IFC-funded coal-fired power plant in India. The IFC argued that it is not subject to the authority of U.S. courts, no matter how harmful or illegal its actions may have been. The court found IFC is entitled to absolute immunity based on previous decisions.   read more

In the U.S., 28 people were executed in 2015, nearly half in Texas, the most active death penalty state, which put 13 people to death, the report said. Missouri executed six people, Georgia five, Florida two and Oklahoma and Virginia one each. Amnesty said 60% of those executed were black or Hispanic, double their percentage in the population. Executions in Saudi Arabia increased by 76% and in Iran they rose 31%. In China, data on the death penalty is considered a state secret.   read more

Tax inversions have sparked a political outcry. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Treasury's new rules are designed to make inversions less economically beneficial for companies. Several Democrats have announced bills to make it harder for U.S. corporations to invert. But prospects for passing such legislation in an election year are not deemed high, given the wide differences between Democrats and Republicans on taxes.   read more