Eight prison guards from the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, NY pleaded not guilty on Friday at arraignments in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on charges of using physical violence and excessive force against two inmates and filing false reports to conceal their actions. A total of 11 [...]
Mexican President Felipe Calderon Thursday signed a decree decriminalizing libel and defamation, offenses previously punishable by prison sentences. Henceforward they will be punishable by fine and subject to civil suits. The move has already garnered the approval of media groups such as the Inter American Press Association (SIP) , which praised the fact that critics [...]
Russia's Foreign Ministry Thursday assailed a new human rights report critical of Russia issued last week by the US Department of State , claiming that the United States is using human rights as a pretense to interfere with Russia's domestic affairs in violation of the UN Charter. At a press conference , Russian Deputy Foreign [...]
A Quebec Superior Court judge Thursday postponed the war crimes trial of Desiré Munyaneza after he was severely beaten in his cell by another prisoner Wednesday night. The former Rwandan militia commander is charged under the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act with seven counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes [...]
Eight suspected members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) were sent for trial Thursday by French investigators for their alleged role in the Casablanca terrorist attacks in May 2003. The suspects have been charged with engaging in a terrorist undertaking and could receive up to ten years in prison. GICM, which has been listed [...]
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed a law that will "prohibit persons from engaging in picketing or a directed protest within 150 yards of any entrance" where a funeral is held or "conducted within one hour prior to, during the funeral, or within two hours following the funeral". Picketers that violate the law will face up [...]
The White House issued a policy statement Thursday expressing the administration's strong opposition to the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 Thursday, and threatening presidential veto of the bill unless the Democratic-controlled Congress alters provisions which would increase congressional oversight of intelligence activities. The legislation, introduced by Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocked the release of Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles on bail Thursday, after federal prosecutors filed an emergency motion appealing US District Judge Kathleen Cardone's ruling that Carriles should be release on bail due to his age and ties to the community. Carriles' lawyers will have [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Thursday released data obtained under a June 2006 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, documenting civilian casualties caused by US military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan . The 479 files from Iraq, and 17 files from Afghanistan, are compensation requests filed with the US Foreign Claims Commissions by surviving [...]
The Mississippi Supreme Court Thursday upheld the manslaughter convictions of former Ku Klux Klan organizer Edgar Ray Killen . Killen, now 82, was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2005, receiving one 20-year sentence for each of the 3 young men who were killed in 1964 after assisting African-Americans in registering to vote. Killen [...]
