Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez stated that the national police and the local prosecutor's office conducted a raid as part of an operation to rescue and protect minors at risk. Jimenez revealed that excavations at the sect's compound uncovered the remains of a six-month-old infant.

The four children, all American citizens, were freed during the operation. The US Embassy expressed gratitude to Guatemalan authorities via a post on the social media platform X, emphasizing that the safety of American citizens remains its top priority.

Details about the children's ages and identities remain undisclosed due to child protection laws. Authorities expect to transfer the children to the US Embassy, which will facilitate their return to the United States within the next 24 hours. In January, the sect's leader, Aaron Teller, faced arrest on suspicion of orchestrating underage marriages. Throughout 2024, over 160 minors were rescued from Lev Tahor in Guatemala and Mexico.

Operativo "#LevTahor Fase 2" en proceso.

Fuerzas Especiales de @PNCdeGuatemala en apoyo a #PGN rescatan y protegen a 4 menores de edad con reporte Alba-Keneth. #Oratorio, #SantaRosa.

¡Excelente resultado Viceministra Palencia! @mingobguate @HSI_HQ pic.twitter.com/E9wg272m1V

— Francisco Jiménez (@FJimenezmingob) May 14, 2025

Lev Tahor established its base in Guatemala in 2013 after fleeing Mexico and Canada, where members faced persecution for similar allegations of child abuse. In Mexico, a case against the sect has been ongoing since 2022, with accusations of human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors following the rescue of a group of children from the sect in Tapachula, Chiapas.

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Iraq's parliament is preparing to pass legislation that would lower the legal age of consent from 18 to nine years old, while simultaneously removing women's rights to divorce, child custody, and inheritance, The Telegraph reports.

The amendment, backed by a coalition of conservative Shia Muslim parties, would overturn the country's "personal status law," also known as Law 188, which has been considered among the most progressive women's rights in the Middle East since its introduction in 1959. "The amendment would not just undermine these rights," said Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It would erase them."

Iraq is legalizing child marriage and lowering the age of consent to just 9.

Iraqi women's rights activist risks her life and confronts an iman who sponsored the bill.

"You're following Muhamad who married 9-year-old Aisha 1400 years ago. That is not normal in today's world!" pic.twitter.com/JnpUT3RUF5

— Dr. Maalouf ‏ (@realMaalouf) November 9, 2024

Previous attempts to change the law failed in 2014 and 2017 due to backlash from Iraqi women. However, according to experts interviewed by The Telegraph, the coalition now holds a large parliamentary majority and appears poised to succeed. The Iraqi parliament will formally debate the latest amendments before putting them to a vote.

"It's the closest it's ever been. It has more momentum than it's ever had, primarily because of the Shia parties," Dr. Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, said. The proposed amendment is part of a wider political move by Shia Islamist groups to "consolidate their power" and regain legitimacy. "Stressing the religious side is a way for them to try and regain some of the ideological legitimacy that has been waning over the last few years," he explained.

According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), approximately 28% of women in Iraq are already married by age 18. A current loophole allows religious leaders to officiate marriages, including those involving girls as young as 15, with paternal permission. These unregistered marriages are particularly widespread in economically poor, ultra-conservative Shia communities. The amendment would legitimize these religious marriages, putting young girls at increased risk of sexual and physical violence. Additionally, these women "will have to stay in harmful situations because they fear losing custody of their children," Sanbar said.

The proposed amendment would also give Muslim citizens the option to choose between the current secular personal status law or religious law based on their sect. However, in dispute cases, the husband's sect would take precedence. "It's explicitly written in the draft that when there's a dispute between the couple, the sect of the husband takes priority," Sanbar said. "This is going to remove a lot of protections for women... it will undermine the principle of equality before the law."

Athraa Al-Hassan, international human rights legal adviser and director of Model Iraqi Woman, expressed fear that Iraq's system of governance could be replaced with the Guardianship of the Jurist – a Shia system placing religious rule above the state. The system is similar to Afghanistan and Iran, where a Guardian Jurist is the supreme leader. "What they aspire to in parliament is not in the interest of society, but their personal interest," Al-Hassan told The Telegraph. "Iraq is a civilized civil state that cannot be otherwise. The first female minister in the Arab countries was Iraqi and the first female judge was Iraqi," said Al-Hassan. "We aspire to progress, not regress."

The action has sparked protests in Baghdad and other cities, organized by Coalition 188, an Iraqi group of female activists opposed to amending the personal status law. The action has sparked an outcry on social media, with women's rights activists accusing the government of trying to "legalize child rape."

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The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges that the university failed to protect students at Yeshiva University High School for Boys and promoted one of the rabbis to principal even after receiving abuse reports.

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A Yeshiva University spokesperson declined to comment, citing a school policy against speaking publicly about litigation.

The lawsuit is one of hundreds that have been filed over child sexual abuse allegations since last week, when New York state opened a one-year window for lawsuits previously barred by the state's statute of limitations.

During a news conference on Thursday, three of the alleged victims, flanked by their lawyers, spoke about disturbing behavior they say went on for decades.

"I didn't even understand at the time that this was sexual abuse; I just knew that this guy was putting his hands all over me," said Barry Singer, 61, speaking of one of the rabbis he said kept reaching into the boy's pants, even in school hallways.

The Associated Press doesn't typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they choose to be named.

One of the accused rabbis, George Finkelstein, targeted children of Holocaust survivors, according to the lawsuit, telling them they would increase their parents' suffering if they spoke about the abuse. The other, Rabbi Macy Gordon, who taught Jewish studies, allegedly sodomized boys in a "vicious and sadistic" manner using objects, the lawsuit says. Gordon died in 2017 in Israel. Both he and Finkelstein have denied the allegations in the past.

Finkelstein was promoted from the school's assistant principal to principal even after some of the boys' parents reported the alleged abuse to school officials, the plaintiffs said. He eventually moved to Israel, where he worked at Jerusalem's Great Synagogue. Calls to the synagogue rang unanswered on Thursday.

Thirty-four of the plaintiffs attempted to sue Yeshiva University for sexual abuse and facilitating sexual abuse in 2013, but the case went nowhere because it was barred by the statute of limitations at the time. On Thursday, one of their attorneys, Kevin Mulhearn, called the plaintiffs "trailblazers."

David Bressler, 51, said the abuse he suffered while a student in the early '80s led him to abandon his religion that now rekindles memories of the abuse. He has no contact with his parents and other relatives who are observant Jews. When he married his Jewish wife a decade ago, he made her promise not to raise their children in the Jewish faith.

He said he still doesn't tuck in his shirt, a habit he started in high school to make it more difficult for his abuser to put his hand down his pants. Bressler once punched Finkelstein while he says the rabbi was sexually "wrestling" with him.

Now there are days that he can't bear being on a crowded subway because "I can't stand being touched by people."

"So you don't even realize what the long-term impact is," said Bressler, a father of two.

Yeshiva University, which calls itself "the world's premier Jewish institution for higher learning," has trained both secular and religious leaders for the past century. With four campuses in Manhattan, the university operates the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and other schools that attract a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish students.

The high school, also known as the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, has taught boys since 1916. It's considered the first academic Jewish high school in the US and the first to offer both Jewish and secular studies.

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Roads were blocked in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as furious parents waved signs reading "Mother, Father, save me" and "Don't abandon our children," just days after hidden camera footage was released of Rosh Haayin kindergarten caregiver Carmel Mauda, 25, abusing children.

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Nearly 10,000 people took part in the Tel Aviv protest.

Parents of the children and their supporters are demanding child care oversight laws be strengthened and more severely enforced, and that private daycare be brought under the jurisdiction of the Education Ministry. Subsidized public daycare in the form of preschool is currently available to children from the age of three.

Charges against Mauda, who ran the Baby Love daycare center, accuse her of violence against 11 children, ranging in age from three months to three years.

If convicted, Mauda could face a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Video: Paz Bar, Newsenders

She is accused of covering children with blankets and sitting on them to prevent them from moving, forcing children to stand against a wall for hours, lifting toddlers by the arms and throwing them down, shaking babies, hitting and slapping toddlers and pulling their heads back while obstructing their breathing. In one case, she is even charged with force-feeding a child "the contents of a plate on which he had vomited."

The footage led to nationwide horror and protests outside Mauda's home and the daycare center, which went up in flames on Saturday in what is believed to have been an arson attack. Currently under arrest, Mauda was not on the premises.

Hebrew media reported that Mauda initially denied the allegations, but told investigators "I am a monster," and "I was Satan here" when presented with the video evidence.

Mauda was allegedly reported by the last of eight different employees she hired and fired in the past year. Another unnamed assistant has also been arrested.

Protests were organized in Haifa, Beersheba, Yavne and Tel Aviv, with nearly 10,000 protesters taking part in the central demonstration in Tel Aviv.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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After Israel Police investigators re-interviewed the victim, Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Sharon Afek made the decision to cancel the indictment against Nazmi Abed el-Hamid Kattousa due to a glaring lack of evidence, and proceed with an investigation to find the culprit.

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"After examining the evidence in the case, the completion of the investigation and the analysis of the investigative actions that are yet to be carried out, the Military Advocate General believes that at this time there is no reasonable chance of convicting Kattousa. Therefore, the MAG decided to walk back from the indictment and allow the Israel Police to continue completing the investigation," the office of the Military Advocate General announced.

Kattousa was originally indicted in mid-June after a three-month investigation. He worked as a janitor at the victim's school and reportedly fostered a relationship with her by occasionally speaking to her and giving her candy.

On the day in question, Kattousa reportedly took the girl by the hand and forcefully led her to a nearby house, where he brutally raped her. After the attack, he released her.

During the investigation, Kattousa denied all charges, putting his word against the girl's testimony.

The police maintained that there was no evidence to support widespread assertions that the attack was carried out from ethno-religious motives – in other words, that a Palestinian had raped a Jewish Israeli girl because of her nationality and religion.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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