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At least six Malaysia-bound Filipinas were rescued from a suspected human trafficking ring after authorities intercepted their vessel off Palawan province. The six Filipinas, with ages between 27 and 37 were aboard a boat when they were intercepted off Bancalaan village in Balabac town, radio dzBB's Palawan affiliate James Viernes reported on Wednesday.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) is starting a special course called anti-human trafficking from the coming academic session. The six month course was earlier launched by union home minister P Chidambaram in the capital, and now students in the city can enrol for the same. Regional director of Ignou P Sivaswaroop said, "Students who have cleared Std XII can apply for the course before July 15. Special classes for this course will be held on Sundays at Guru Nanak Bhavan building.

The Appeals Court yesterday sentenced a Myanmar national to 14 and half years in jail, and gave 13 and a half years to his two accomplices in a human-trafficking case. The three men were found guilty of forcing their compatriots to work on fishing boats for no pay. The three men had initially been sentenced to 19 years and 16 years in jail respectively.

"FBI: Criminal Pursuit," a Wednesday-night show on the cable station Investigation Discovery, devotes its episode this week to a Hartford sex-slave ring whose leaders were convicted in 2007 of forcing girls as young as 14 to turn tricks. The episode "All-American Sex Slaves," part-news report and part-dramatic re-enactment, tells the story of two pimps, Brian Forbes and Dennis "Rahmyti" Paris, and two girls, one from New Hampshire and one from Vermont, who were enslaved by Forbes and Paris and then escaped and testified against them.

IOM is today hosting a four-day workshop in Beijing for senior Chinese counter-trafficking police and immigration officials to strengthen mechanisms designed to protect and assist victims of human trafficking. The training, which is being attended by over 30 central and provincial officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Public Security and Civil Affairs, is part of IOM’s "Capacity Building for Migration Management (CBMM) in China" project.

Authorities need to strengthen the rule of law to fight human trafficking, participants said May 14 at the beginning of a three-day OSCE conference. “Strategies … to combat human trafficking will only be successful if they are governed by the principles of rule of law and centred on the protection of the rights of the victims to access justice and regain their human dignity," said Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said in an OSCE statement.

Two people among 492 Tamil refugee claimants who landed on the West Coast of Canada two years ago have now been charged with helping to organize the smuggling operation. Lesly Jana Emmanuel and Kunarobinson Christhurajah are accused of organizing, inducing and aiding in the operation that brought the Tamils by boat to British Columbia.

A Modesto man accused of raping a woman last year has been arrested in front of his home. Devon Tenille Bradford, 33, was arrested Monday night on suspicion of rape, human trafficking, and lewd and lascivious acts, according to police Detective Steve Anderson.

Cook County authorities on Tuesday arrested a Chicago man who allegedly held women against their will, giving them heroin several times a day and forcing them to work as prostitutes. Dajuan Brown, 35, was charged with 10 felony counts of involuntary sexual servitude and one count of aggravated human trafficking, Cook County Sheriff's Department officials said in a news release.

A 26-year-old man from Chiapas, Mexico, was sentenced Monday in a Tucson federal court to five years in prison for human smuggling, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. Berlain "El Chato" Galvez Lopez was found guilty on Feb. 1 of three counts of bringing in illegal aliens for commercial advantage or private financial gain, said Bill Solomon, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.