The Indian Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh apologized Saturday for the government’s role in the 2008 disposal of toxic waste from the 1984 Bhopal chemical spill disaster , which he said was done secretly and in an improper manner. Bhopal victims groups and citizens living near the town of Pithampur, where the disposal occurred, have expressed [...]
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday denied the stay of proceedings request of accused Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga . Katanga filed the appeal in June seeking a stay of proceedings and a declaration of unlawful detention by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before his transfer to the [...]
US Attorney General Eric Holder said during an interview Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will continue monitoring the effects of Arizona’s recently passed immigration bill and would consider filing a second lawsuit if implementation of the bill had a “racial profiling impact.” The DOJ filed suit last week [...]
A Zimbabwean court on Monday granted bail to human rights activist Farai Maguwu, who was being held for allegedly supplying false information about Zimbabwe’s controversial diamond mining practices to the international diamond control body the Kimberley Process (KP) . In granting the bail request, Judge Mawadze Gurainesu rejected the prosecution’s argument that Maguwu would interfere [...]
US Attorney General Eric Holder said during an interview Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation that no final decision has been reached as to whether accused 9/11 conspirators, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , will be tried in civilian court or by military tribunal. Holder stated that the main goal of the administration is to [...]
More than 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of Toronto on Saturday to demand transparent public inquiries into police action in connection with last month’s Group of 20 (G-20) summit . Nearly 1,000 arrests were made before and during the G20, making it the largest mass arrest in Canadian history and protesters contend that both [...]
The Cuban government on Saturday freed the first of 52 political prisoners who will be released as part of an agreement with the Roman Catholic Church , which was brokered by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos . According to reports, three of the political dissidents were released from custody and taken to an undisclosed [...]
British Prime Minister David Cameron and UN Chief War Crimes Prosecutor Serge Brammertz marked the Fifteenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre , by reaffirming their commitment to bringing those responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys to justice. Cameron issued a statement calling the massacre “a crime that shamed [...]
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger indicated Saturday that the EU will consider limiting the depth of offshore deepwater oil drilling or placing a temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling following the recent BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He also suggested that the EU will discuss if it needs another agency to [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday called on the Sri Lankan government to improve conditions around the body’s offices in Columbo, following several days of protests by pro-government demonstrators. The protesters have been demanding the UN end plans to have an international panel investigate allegations of human rights abuses during the last months of the [...]
