Retired Argentine General Cristino Nicolaides and five other former officers stood trial Tuesday for their alleged role in the abduction and torture of five political dissidents during the country's military dictatorship of the late 1970s and 80s. In December 2007, Nicolaides was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for charges regarding another group [...]
The CIA has used waterboarding "on only three detainees" since September 11, 2001, CIA Director Michael Hayden told the US Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday. Stipulating that the interrogation technique has not been used by the CIA in five years, Hayden for the first time named the men waterboarded: accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , [...]
US President George W. Bush will veto any terror surveillance legislation passed by Congress that does not include liability protection for telecom companies, a letter from Attorney General Michael Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell warned Congress Tuesday, according to AP. Last week, Bush signed a 15-day extension to the temporary Protect America Act [...]
Uzbekistan authorities have granted a pardon to a journalist and Human Rights Watch (HRW) translator sentenced to prison, according to Tuesday reports. Umida Niyazova was sentenced to seven years after an Uzbek court convicted her last May of illegal border crossing, smuggling, and distributing propaganda allegedly supporting an extremist religious group known as Akramiya . [...]
The Russian Supreme Court Tuesday rejected the appeal of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to reinstate his candidacy in the March Russian presidential election. Last week, the Russian Central Election Commission banned Kasyanov from running in the election , rejecting 13.36 percent of signatures he submitted in support of his candidacy as either forged or [...]
A defense lawyer representing four ex-officers of the former Rwandan army facing trials before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has accused Prosecutor Hassan Jallow of concealing evidence favorable to the defense, according to Monday media reports. Lawyer Christopher Black claims Jallow possesses witness statements indicating that Black's client, former Rwandan army general Augustin [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour Tuesday urged the Chadian government and rebel forces to follow humanitarian law and respect human rights as fighting continued for a fourth day after rebels entered the capital city of N'Djamena in an attempt to overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby . An estimated 20,000 civilians have fled [...]
Private government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Tuesday urged US Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether the White House had violated the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act in failing to preserve millions of missing White House e-mails . In September 2007 [...]
US Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday criticized a provision in the Bush administration's proposed $3 trillion FY09 budget that would fund the newly created Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) through the Department of Justice (DOJ) rather than through the National Archives and Records Administration as originally intended. [...]
The Chinese government on Tuesday announced the release on parole of Hong Kong reporter Ching Cheong ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Ching, sentenced to five years in prison in 2006 for allegedly selling "state secrets and intelligence" to Taiwan , was the chief China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times . In November 2006, [...]
