UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak arrived in China Monday for a two week trip, which will include visits to Chinese detention centers in Beijing, Tibet and the Muslim region of Xinjiang. The trip is a result of nearly 10 years of negotiations between Nowak and Beijing, and China has agreed to allow private [...]
The Bush administration is urging Bosnian leaders to revise its constitution in time for Tuesday's commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Dayton Accord ending the Bosnian war. As the EU starts negotiations to prepare Bosnia for EU membership and the US seeks to renew its involvement in the country, leaders have pressed for creation [...]
Fifty-six defendants appeared in a Spanish court Monday to face charges that they were members of organizations which supported the Basque separatist group ETA , or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. Various organizations are believed to have provided financial, political, media, and international support to ETA, which has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 and is considered [...]
Kyrgyzstan Prosecutor General Kambaraly Kongantiyev told the country's Security Council Monday that the nation is on the verge of anarchy which could result in the loss of state control if authorities fail to deal with organized crime and chaotic protests. Since President Askar Akayev's ouster in March , the country has been plagued with prison [...]
Kenyans voted Monday in a referendum on a new constitution . Voters came out amid fears that violence might overshadow the voting process, viewed as a dress rehearsal for the 2007 election. The vote is supported by President Mwai Kibaki , but criticized by others such as 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, , [...]
Frans van Anraat , a Dutch businessman accused of supplying chemical agents to Iraq with the knowledge that Saddam Hussein would use them for poison gas attacks, went on trial Monday in the Netherlands on charges of complicity in war crimes and genocide . Van Anraat is alleged to have supplied agents used by Saddam's [...]
CIA interrogators strictly obey torture laws when trying to obtain information from prisoners, according to CIA Director Porter Goss . In an interview published Monday, Goss told USA Today that the CIA employs "lawful capabilities to collect vital information and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are [...]
Senior US Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) , said Sunday that views expressed by US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on reapportionment in a 1985 document could have repercussions for his nomination and lead to a filibuster. This is in contrast to Biden's remarks of a few weeks ago when he said [...]
Lawyers for Saddam Hussein said Sunday they are willing to attend the next trial hearing sxheduled for November 28 if proper protection is provided for the entire defense team. Khalil Dulaimi, head of the defense, stated "e are prepared to attend the trial if our demands to secure proper protection are me… We are ready [...]
US senators and the White House are discussing a possible ban on torture of suspected terrorists in US custody, but are struggling to find a consensus, according to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking Sunday on ABC's This Week. The Senate's plan under the so-called McCain Amendment would restrict techniques used to interrogate detainees [...]
