The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday urged incumbent Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo to step down, threatening the use of force if he attempts to maintain power. Gbagbo has refused to cede power to president-elect Alassance Ouattara , who won the November 28 runoff electio,n according to international observers. Gbagbo’s supporters [...]
A judge for the Raipur Sessions Court of Chhattisgarh state India found human rights activist Binayak Sen guilty of aiding rebels and sentenced him to life imprisonment Friday, amid criticism from international rights groups. Sen was convicted under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act of 2005 and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 2004 for [...]
The Russian State Duma voted 350-59 on Friday to approve the New START nuclear arms treaty with the US, after just hours of debate. The New START treaty replaces the expired Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty , with Russia and the US each pledging to reduce their countries’ nuclear warheads by about 30 percent. Under the [...]
A Swiss judge on Thursday called for the prosecution of three engineers who have links to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for allegedly smuggling nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan. After six years of investigation, Swiss federal magistrate Andreas Mueller recommended that the three engineers be tried for providing weapons-related technology to a Pakistani smuggling ring [...]
The American rights group Freedom House on Thursday urged the US and European Union (EU) to renew full sanctions against Belarus in the wake of post-election unrest. Freedom House commended U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European High Representative Catherine Ashton for their joint statement calling on Belarusian authorities to release imprisoned presidential candidates [...]
The Alaska Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an election challenged filed by Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller , allowing certification of the November results to move forward. Miller claimed that errors in the counting of election ballots and voter registration led to the write-in victory of his rival Senator Lisa Murkowski . Affirming a lower [...]
Aaron D. Tax : “Congress and President Clinton created “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) in 1993 as a so-called compromise that has “allowed” lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans to serve our country, so long as they lie about who they are. On the legislative, administrative, and litigation fronts, it is now, to say the least, [...]
The Kenyan Parliament on Wednesday approved a motion to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC) . The vote comes a week after ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presented cases against six individuals for crimes committed during Kenya’s 2007 post-election violence . Although the vote is non-binding, it is a victory for the [...]
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a resolution condemning recent post-election violence in the Ivory Coast that has resulted in more than 170 deaths. Alassane Ouattara defeated incumbent Laurent Gbagbo in a November 28 runoff election, but Gbagbo has refused to concede victory, and his supporters have been engaging in a campaign of [...]
Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison for crimes against humanity during Argentina’s “Dirty War” . The Federal Court of Cordoba found Videla guilty of human rights violations when he served as military chief of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. Many of the two dozen former military and [...]
