WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court will hear the case of a Muslim woman who was denied employment at clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch because she wore a headscarf.
The Supreme Court yesterday received a complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Abercrombie & Fitch, popular among teenagers and known for sales associates often dressed in racy attire.
Samantha Elauf, then-aged 17, was refused a job at Abercrombie & Fitch in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2008 because she wore a headscarf, violating the company’s “look policy,” which outlines how store associates should be groomed and dressed.
A federal judge initially found Abercrombie & Fitch liable for discrimination, a decision which was later appealed.
The 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees who provide “explicit notice of the need for a religious accommodation.”
Under the act, no one can be refused employment based on their religion, unless the employer cannot accomodate the person’s religious beliefs without adversely affecting business.
The case has received support from religious rights groups and US President Barack Obama’s administration, which appealed the Colorado court’s decision.
Venezuelan lawmaker murdered
CARACAS: A lawmaker allied with Venezuela’s socialist government and his female companion were found murdered in Caracas, a crime roundly condemned yesterday by President Nicolas Maduro.
The bodies of Robert Serra, 27, and his partner Maria Herrera, were found at his home late Wednesday. Officials said they had been fatally stabbed. Miguel Rodriguez Torres, Caracas’ minister of Justice and the Interior, told reporters that the killings “were an intentional act of homicide, planned and carried out with great precision.”
He estimated that it took between 15 and 20 minutes to carry out the “macabre errand.”
Maduro, writing on Twitter, said he felt “immense grief upon learning about the assassination of Robert Serra, a leader of the Bolivarian and Chavista revolution.”
The head of Venezuela’s national assembly, Diosdado Cabello, vowed in a Twitter message that authorities “will bring to justice those responsible for this crime.” Opposition leaders also expressed outrage over the murders.
Simon forms off Mexico’s Pacific coast
MEXICO CITY: Tropical storm Simon formed early yesterday off Mexico’s Pacific coast, but it was projected to wheel out to sea in the coming days.
The US National Hurricane Center said that as of yesterday morning, the storm was about 360 miles south-southeast of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, which was slammed by Hurricane Odile last month. Simon was moving to the west-northwest and could become a hurricane by Saturday, the Miami-based center said. Odile plowed into the southern tip of Baja last month as a category 3 hurricane. It caused major damage to beach resorts, stranded thousands of tourists for days and sparked widespread looting, forcing the government to send in thousands of troops.
Heroin overdose death rate doubles in US
WASHINGTON: Fatal heroin overdoses rose sharply across much of the United States in just two years, with a new report showing the death rate doubled from 2010-12, health authorities said yesterday.
The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was based on death certificate data from 28 states, where total deaths from heroin overdoses rose from 1,779 to 3,635.
That translated to a doubling of the death rate, from one per 100,000 people to 2.1 per 100,000. “Despite these findings, still more than twice as many people died from prescription opioid overdoses as died from heroin in these states in 2012,” added the CDC report.
Reasons for the rise in heroin overdoses include “widespread prescription opioid exposure and increasing rates of opioid addiction... and increased heroin supply.”
Agencies
