Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thursday accused the British government of encouraging torture in a new report . HRW slammed the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair for attempting to lead evidence gained through torture in court cases; for trying to deport terrorist suspects to countries known for torture; and for failing to condemn the US [...]

The German Federal Court of Justice ruled Thursday that because the country was not directly involved in the 1999 NATO bombings that killed 10 Serbs and injured 30, it is not obligated to compensate victims. The 35 Serbs who brought the case against Germany , a member of NATO , however, argued that the country [...]

The Center for Digital Democracy and the US Public Interest Research Group have filed a 50-page complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking it to look into allegedly "deceptive and unfair" advertising practices of Internet companies , including web giants Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! . The consumer advocacy groups claim that current privacy [...]

Former Computer Associates CEO Sanjay Kumar received a 12-year prison sentence and an $8 million fine Thursday after pleading guilty in April to charges of securities fraud and obstruction of justice for his role in the company's revenue-swapping of $2.2 billion with another company in 1999 and 2000. Though Kumar could have faced a life [...]

Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has refused to meet with Australian consular officials in order to avoid punishment by US guards, his lawyer has told an Australian Senate panel. The lawyer said that Hicks believes he has been punished after previously complaining about his treatment at the US prison camp, but the Australian Department [...]

Ohio absentee voters must continue to show proof of ID when applying for an absentee ballot, but absentee ballots already obtained without ID will still be counted after a settlement was reached Wednesday between the state and groups opposed to Ohio's voter ID law . The settlement, reached in a federal lawsuit challenging the Ohio [...]

UK Information Commissioner Richard Thomas on Thursday warned that Britain is becoming a "surveillance society" , where the daily lives of citizens are increasingly monitored and privacy is being gradually – if often imperceptibly – eroded. He said governmental, commercial and even private surveillance activities, however ostensibly benign, may have serious social side-effects: nseen, uncontrolled [...]

The retrial of two British National Party (BNP) officials on charges of inciting racial hatred began Wednesday in the UK, with hundreds of supporters protesting outside the Leeds Crown Court. BNP leader Nick Griffin and senior aide Mark Collett face two race hate charges based on speeches in West Yorkshire in 2004, taped by the [...]

Thai interim Prime Minister Chulanont Surayud Thursday promised to investigate allegations of human rights violations by the government of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra . Speaking to Muslim leaders in the southern Pattani province, Surayud apologized for the former government's crackdown on an Islamic insurgency in the country's southern region and said the government will [...]

The United States is violating its universal human rights obligations by its failure to protect millions of illegal immigrant workers from exploitation and discrimination in the workplace, according to a petition filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Wednesday. The petition was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Employment Law [...]