Latest Matisyahu News

An American pastor detained in China for nearly 20 years has been released

Sep. 16, 2024 14:43 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Christian pastor from California has been freed from China after nearly 20 years behind bars and is back home in the U.S., the State Department said Monday. David Lin, 68, was detained after he entered China in 2006, later convicted of contract fraud and...

Congo court sentences 3 Americans and 34 others to death on coup charges

Sep. 14, 2024 15:31 PM EDT

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A military court in Congo handed down death sentences Friday to 37 people, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in a coup attempt. The defendants, most of them Congolese but also including a Briton, Belgian and...

Foreign governments criticize Hong Kong's convictions of journalists in sedition case

Aug. 29, 2024 21:28 PM EDT

HONG KONG (AP) — The convictions of two Hong Kong journalists who led a now-shuttered online news outlet have deepened concerns of media groups and foreign governments over the city’s press freedom, though local officials say there are no restrictions when journalists stick to the facts. ...

Israel court hears bid to close prison where soldiers are accused of sexually assaulting Palestinian

Aug. 07, 2024 17:37 PM EDT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli Supreme Court considered a petition Wednesday to shutter a desert military prison where soldiers have been accused of abusing Palestinians, as a new video emerged purporting to show the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee. Rights groups have been...

US-Russian journalist convicted in a rapid, secret trial, gets 6 1/2 years in prison, court says

Jul. 22, 2024 17:48 PM EDT

A court has convicted Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, of spreading false information about the Russian army and sentenced her to 6½ years in prison after a secret trial, court records and officials said Monday. ...

6 Vietnamese and American guests found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok, with poisoning a possibility

Jul. 16, 2024 21:40 PM EDT

BANGKOK (AP) — The bodies of six people were found Tuesday in a luxury hotel in downtown Bangkok and their deaths may have been caused by poisoning, police and officials said. Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Thiti Sangsawang identified the dead as two Vietnamese Americans and four...