Two rights organizations filed an indictment against former US president George W Bush with the Canada Department of Justice on Thursday accusing him of commissioning a torture program during his time in office. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the same complaint earlier this year in Geneva, Switzerland, forcing Bush to cancel a planned [...]
Lithuania must reopen the investigation into secret CIA prisons in light of new evidence, Amnesty International (AI) insisted Thursday. AI cited evidence of rendition flights of Abu Zubaydah in 2005 revealed earlier this year by Reprieve , a London-based human rights organization. AI counter-terrorism and human rights expert, Julia Hall, pressed authorities: The Lithuanian authorities [...]
The upper house of the Kazakhstani parliament on Thursday passed a controversial bill dissolving religious organizations and requiring re-registration, drawing criticism from international observers. Recently, Kazakhstani lawmakers have been unsettled by religious extremists plotting acts of terrorism across Central Asia’s largest economy. The bill dissolves current registrations and establishes a procedure requiring groups to meet [...]
The Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister Al Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi on Wednesday. Al-Mahmoudi was arrested in Tunisia last week and sentenced to six months in prison for illegally entering the country. The conviction was overturned by a Tunisian appeals court, however. Al-Mahmoudi has since gone on hunger [...]
US Congressmen Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), co-chairs of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday asking the FTC to investigate allegations that Facebook is tracking users’ activities even after they have logged out of the website . Australian blogger Nik Cubrilovic broke the initial [...]
The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia Surya Subedi on Wednesday urged the Cambodian government to review a proposed law that would hinder non-governmental organization (NGO) efforts in the country. The proposed Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations (LANGO) would force potential NGOs to meet strict eligibility requirements and to complete a government [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) Wednesday officially referred charges against a high-profile Guantanamo Bay detainee who allegedly planned the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that left 17 sailors dead and 37 others injured. Saudi-born former millionaire Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri will stand trial before a military tribunal at Guantanamo on nine terrorism, conspiracy and [...]
The Court of Appeal of Paris on Wednesday rejected a request from Rwandan officials to extradite Agathe Habyarimana, widow of assassinated Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana , to Rwanda to face trial on genocide charges. Habyarimana has been accused of helping to plan the 1994 Rwandan genocide between Hutus and Tutsis in which more than 800,000 [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on Wednesday refused to block key parts of Alabama’s recently passed immigration law. Chief Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, in a 115-page memorandum opinion , ruled that the federal government’s challenge to the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act had not met [...]
The Ivory Coast government on Wednesday launched a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to resolve conflicts stemming from the widespread post-election violence that took place earlier this year. The 11-member commission, modeled on similar efforts taken by South Africa during the post-apartheid era, is composed of Ivory Coast religious leaders and other dignitaries and is headed [...]
