Myanmar officials on Monday announced amnesty for 514 prisoners. The Ministry of Information did not identify the prisoners who will be freed, but activists have identified several political detainees and foreigners slated to be released . The release announcement comes a week before President Thein Sein is scheduled to travel to New York to attend [...]
Bangladesh’s personal laws governing marriage, separation and divorce overtly discriminate against women, according to a 109-page report published Monday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) . “Will I Get My Dues … Before I Die?”: Harm to Women from Bangladesh’s Discriminatory Laws on Marriage, Separation, and Divorce” documents how the country’s personal laws leave many women [...]
Opposition fighters in Syria are committing war crimes , including torture and extrajudicial and summary executions, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday. HRW documented war crimes in the cities of Aleppo, Latakia and Idlib. Although opposition fighters initially assured HRW they would not commit war crimes, when HRW confronted them with information about the violations [...]
An Omani blogger was sentenced to one year of imprisonment by a Muscat court on Sunday and must pay a fine of 1,000 Omani Rials (USD $2,600). The blogger, Mukhtar bin Mohammed bin Saif al-Hinai, was convicted on charges of slander and violating the country’s information technology laws. Al-Hinai is employed by Al-Zaman newspaper, which [...]
A judge for the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on Friday issued a preliminary ruling against Samsung in their complaint that mobile phones and tablet computers imported by Apple infringed on four Samsung patents. The patents in this case covered narrow data processing and user input methods. Samsung asked that the ITC block the import [...]
Nigeria’s High Court in Abuja declined to stop impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday. This means the Nigerian House of Representatives’ impeachment proceedings for non-implementation of the nation’s budget will be allowed to continue according to Nigeria’s Constitution. In bringing the lawsuit, National Chairman of the African Liberation Party , Dr. Emmanuel Okereke, [...]
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday signed a cybercrimes law to prevent various electronic offenses including forgery, fraud, identity theft and child pornography. The new crimes are grouped into two sections: Internet Crimes and Commercial Crimes. “Among the punishable acts under the new law include offenses against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer [...]
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Sunday released the former “First Lady” of the Khmer Rouge regime, Ieng Thirith. The court ruled that due her degenerative illness, said to likely be Alzheimers, she should be released from detention . Thirith, the sister-in-law of former leader Pol Pot , has continued to [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday urged religious and political leaders around the world to encourage an end to violence that erupted after a US citizen released an anti-Islam film last week. While Pillay said she “fully understand why people wish to protest strongly against” the film, she “utterly condemn” the [...]
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced Friday that he will implement an indefinite moratorium on executions due to “numerous appeals.” The international community was very critical of Jammeh when he executed nine prisoners last month after vowing to execute all death row inmates by the middle of September, ending a 27-year moratorium on executions in the [...]
