A panel of former 9/11 Commission members say the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) withheld videotapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects, possibly violating federal law. According to a Saturday New York Times report, the panel began to review documents concerning the matter after it was disclosed earlier this month that the agency destroyed the videotapes [...]
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori , apologized Friday for his role in two massacres which occurred during his administration in the early 1990s. Fujimori's apology came during his trial on murder and kidnapping charges stemming from the military killings of 25 people in 1991 and 1992. The victims included a professor and nine students killed [...]
The Supreme Court of Nepal Friday ordered the Nepalese government to extend gay and transgendered people the same rights and privileges as other citizens. Gay and transgendered people face heavy discrimination in conservative Nepal , where so-called "unnatural sex" is illegal and is punishable by jail time. The ruling by Supreme Court judges Pawan Kumar [...]
Maiko Taguscari : "On Dec. 7, the Ministry of Justice disclosed the names of the three death row inmates who were hanged that day, as well as the summary of the crimes they were convicted of and the locations where they were hanged. Some media say this is an important step toward transparency of the [...]
The US Central Intelligence agency (CIA) has requested that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation into whether former CIA agent John Kiriakou illegally released classified information when he spoke to several news organizations last week about CIA interrogations, officials said Thursday. In the interviews, Kiriakou confirmed the use of waterboarding during the interrogations of [...]
Six French nationals connected with the abortive effort by French charity Zoe's Ark to airlift so-called "Darfur orphans" out of Chad to Europe went on trial in Chad Friday, accused of kidnapping, fraud, and forgery. Zoe's Ark founder Eric Breteau said in a written statement to the BBC that Zoe's Ark workers believed the children [...]
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo lauded the Philippine military for working to improve human rights during a speech Friday, but human rights activists say that the armed forces continue to engage in extrajudicial killings. Human rights advocates say almost 900 people have been killed since Arroyo assumed power in 2001, while more than 180 have disappeared [...]
California will appeal the decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deny its request for a waiver that would have allowed it and 16 other states following its lead to impose stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards on cars and light trucks, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Thursday. Also Thursday, Congressional Democrats announced that [...]
US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy on Friday considered the merits of opening a judicial inquiry into whether the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects violated a 2005 court order. During a hearing to consider an emergency motion filed on behalf of several Guantanamo Bay detainees, government lawyers urged Kennedy to [...]
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering a mass release of more than 20,000 nonviolent prisoners in hopes of staving off a projected $10 billion to $14 billion budget deficit over the next two fiscal years, the Sacramento Bee reported Friday. Only prisoners with less than 20 months remaining in their sentence would be eligible for [...]
