US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Wednesday that the US is considering sending Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainees to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation as part of the efforts to close the prison facility. Gates told reporters in Saudi Arabia that while no official decisions have been made, he has been impressed with the country's rehabilitation [...]
A Greek court ruled Tuesday that same-sex marriages performed in the country are invalid. Two same-sex couples were married last year by a local mayor on a small Aegean island, as the 1982 Greek civil marriage law simply saying that marriages must be between two "persons" without specifying that one party must be a man [...]
The Appeals Chamber for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday increased the sentence of Veselin Sljivancanin from five to 17 years. Sljivancanin was convicted of aiding and abetting the killings of over 200 Croatian prisoners of war near Vukovar in 1991. Prosecutors appealed the sentences imposed on Mile Mrksic and [...]
Sophie Richardson : "The Chinese government's secrecy in handling unrest in Tibet since the March 2008 protests erupted in Lhasa was highlighted again on April 8, 2009, when a simple dispatch from the official news agency Xinhua reported that four Tibetans accused of arson in three different incidents had been sentenced to death. Two of [...]
The Council of the District of Columbia voted Tuesday to recognize same-sex marriages performed outside of Washington, DC. The bill, proposed by DC Councilman Phil Mendelson , was approved by a 12-1 vote. The dissenting vote was cast by Councilman Marion Barry . The legislation was given preliminary approval last month. The measure must now [...]
The Maine House of Representatives voted 89-57 Tuesday in favor of a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the state. The vote follows last week's approval by the Maine Senate . The proposed legislation now faces one more vote before the Senate and the House before it goes before Governor John Baldacci , who [...]
A court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday ordered back into custody 18 human rights activists, including activist and journalist Jestina Mukoko and freelance journalist Andrison Manyere. Mukoko is the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) , and Manyere is a former aid to Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai . The indicted activists were accused of [...]
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released its annual report on worldwide religious freedoms, elevating Iraq and Nigeria to its list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) and adding six new countries to its "watch list." The other CPC are Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, [...]
The UK Home Office on Tuesday published a list of individuals who are prohibited from entering the country "for fostering extremism or hatred between October 2008 and March 2009." The list names 16 individuals, including religious preachers, white supremacists, gang leaders, and controversial US radio host Michael Savage . Six additional individuals whose names were [...]
The annual Webby Awards in Law and more than 100 other subject categories were announced in New York Tuesday as the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences honored excellence in interactive design, creativity, usability, and functionality on the Internet in 2009. Women's advocacy site WomensLaw.org took the judges' Webby, and the People's Voice award, [...]
