Trials began Wednesday in Kyrgyzstan for former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his administration officials who have been charged with mass murder. The charges stem from an April 7 incident in which police fired on a crowd of anti-government demonstrators, killing more than 85 people. The crowd eventually overwhelmed security forces, ultimately overtaking the Kyrgyz government [...]
The National Assembly of Hungary passed a bill on Tuesday limiting the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court on state budget and taxation matters. The law, which passed 261-103, eliminates the court’s ability to examine the recent “crisis taxes” imposed on banks, energy companies, foreign retail and telecommunication firms. Once the law is signed by President [...]
Guinean presidential candidate and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo announced Monday that he would take to the Supreme Court to challenge his defeat in the West African nation’s November 7 runoff election. The election, Guinea’s first since it gained independence from France in 1958, took place amid ethnic clashes between the country’s two major [...]
Amnesty International (AI) called Tuesday for Egyptian authorities to promptly and thoroughly investigate the death of 19-year-old Ahmed Shaaban who was allegedly tortured in police custody. Shaaban went missing from his hometown in Alexandria, Egypt, on November 7 and was found dead in a canal near where he lives on November 11. According to Ahmed [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday denied a defense motion for mistrial in the trial of ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani . The motion came after an anonymous juror’s note was read in court, indicating that the juror was alone in her views and [...]
The UK government on Tuesday announced a settlement with 16 Guantanamo Bay detainees over allegations of torture. Details of the settlement agreement, which are legally bound to a confidentiality agreement, have not been released, although at least seven detainees are expected to receive compensation, with at least one recieving over one million pounds . In [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled Friday that a New Hampshire law requiring schools to schedule voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) , its members Jan and Pat Doe, and their three children, who are students at New Hampshire public schools, brought [...]
The Thai government on Tuesday extradited alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to the US to stand trial. The Thai Cabinet approved the extradition and handed Bout over to US law enforcement officials for immediate departure to the US. Bout has been fighting extradition since 2008 when he was arrested and accused of running an [...]
The US House of Representatives voted Monday to ban animal cruelty or crush videos, revising the 1999 legislation that was struck down by the US Supreme Court in April. The Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010 maintains that creating, selling or distributing animal crush videos, which feature small animals being [...]
Richard C. Dieter : “A high delegation of U.S. officials recently traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to report to the recently-formed United Nations Human Rights Council concerning our observance of human rights standards. Other countries were entitled to comment on the U.S.’s compliance with these standards, and many nations pointed to our continued use of the [...]
