Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has offered to accept two detainees held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay , discussing his decision during his weekly radio address on Friday. The offer is being described as a humanitarian gesture, but opposition parties have objected the move of the detainees. The Dhivehi Qaumee Party has threatened [...]
Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) announced on Sunday that the partial recount of the March parliamentary elections will not alter seat allocations awarded in accordance with the provisional results. The commission held that the original count showed no signs of fraud or major irregularities, and confirmed the two-seat lead of the the Iraqiya coalition [...]
A Thai court on Saturday sentenced 27 protesters to six months in prison, according to the chief of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) Tarit Pengit. The accused are members of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship , also known as red shirts and were arrested for violating an emergency decree prohibiting political gatherings [...]
Human Rights Watch on Friday urged the new UK government to set up a judicial inquiry on torture allegations and reaffirm its support for human rights. The rights group claimed that allegations of complicity in the torture of terrorism suspects have badly damaged the nation's reputation and that steps need to be taken to restore [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter on Friday urged reforms to legal systems to fight hunger and promote the right to food. The UN High-Level Task Force for the Global Food Crisis is meeting next week in Dublin to update the 2008 Comprehensive Framework of Action on Food . In [...]
Spokesman for Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) Qassim al-Aboudi announced Friday that the completed recount of votes cast in the March 7 parliamentary elections showed no signs of fraud or major irregularities. The official tally after the 11-day recount of 2.5 million ballots will be announced Monday. After the original count, the Iraqiya coalition [...]
The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) , a small business lobby group, joined a lawsuit on Friday challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted health care reform law . The NFIB joins 20 states in a legal battle that began in March when a complaint seeking injunction and declaratory relief was filed in a [...]
The UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) on Friday urged Syria, Yemen, and Jordan to conduct thorough investigations into allegations of torture by law enforcement officials. Concluding its forty-fourth session, the group of 10 independent experts issued conclusions and recommendations on eight countries. In Jordan, the CAT was "deeply concerned at the numerous, consistent and credible [...]
Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) filed suit in the country's Constitutional Court Friday in an effort to halt proposed constitutional amendments offered by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) . The CHP is challenging reforms that seek to restructure the judiciary, claiming they compromise judicial independence and represent an improper AKP attempt to [...]
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon on Thursday introduced legislation to strengthen prohibitions on bulk removal of Canada's fresh water outside the country. The Transboundary Waters Protection Act would strengthen existing regulations by giving rivers and streams that cross international borders the same protection already in place for the Great Lakes. The bill would also [...]
