New York City Three Filipina women crowd the kitchen of a New York City apartment, ribbing one another over a bubbling fish stew. The eldest, Dema Ramos, is an exceptional cook and has given up trying to suppress her laughter. This outwardly serious mother of five is forcing sweet dough into the funnel of a […]

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Since the Government Accountability Office identified weaknesses in the A3 and G5 visa system in 2008, the U.S. government has taken steps to strengthen the program. Consular personnel are required to screen diplomats more closely prior to issuing visas to household staff. When diplomats’ domestic workers apply for A3 and G5, U.S. consular personnel must […]

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Winslow Wheeler described the $54 billion scheduled to be cut from defense spending by sequester as “puny.” The former congressional budget analyst who works for the Project on Government Oversight was not defending the cut. He was putting it in context. More than 45 percent of all money spent on defense by all nations last […]

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“There can be no doubt that torture is illegal. There are no wartime exceptions for torture, nor is there an exception for prisoners or ‘enemy combatants,’ nor is there an exception for ‘enhanced methods,’” lawyer/journalist Scott Horton wrote in Harper’s in 2008. Prohibition of torture is jus cogens (compelling law), a principle of international law […]

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1. Amnesty International Amnesty International is engaged in a campaign to pressure President Obama to close the U.S. prison at Guantánamo. 2. National Religious Campaign Against Torture NRCAT is lobbying the White House and Congress to create an independent commission of inquiry on torture. 3. Open Society Justice Initiative The Justice Initiative has sued Romania […]

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