The Russian Justice Ministry has asked a court to close down the Russian Human Rights Research Center, a major human rights umbrella group, based on allegations that the center has not filed reports on its activities for over five years. Valentina Melnikova, a member of the center's board, claims that the government has no basis [...]

US military forces in Iraq have detained wives of suspected insurgents in an attempt to "leverage" their husbands' surrender on at least two occasions, according to documents released by the military to the ACLU under the rights group's ongoing FOIA requests . In a May 2004 incident a mother of three young children was detained [...]

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Friday that detainees at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay who have been in the camp up to four years should have their cases heard and decided. Speaking to Associated Press at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, McCain said: "All human beings, no matter how evil they are, have [...]

The US expects a major overhaul of the discredited UN Commission on Human Rights to occur this year, but will insist upon an actual improvement of the current model rather than adherence to artificial deadlines, the State Department's lead negotiator Mark Lagon said at a Washington roundtable on UN reform Thursday. The commission has come [...]

International arrest warrants have been issued for former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and husband Asif Ali Zardari on charges of corruption in a number of unspecified cases stemming from the former prime minister's term in office from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Interpol issued "red notices" Thursday, which serve to inform other [...]

The US military in Afghanistan began court-martial proceedings Friday for a US soldier accused of abusing detainees last year in the southern Uruzgan province. Army Spc. James Hayes is accused of punching detainees in the chest, shoulders, and stomach during the incident, and faces charges of conspiracy to maltreat, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, [...]

Marvin Bieghler was executed in Indiana Friday morning after the US Supreme Court overturned a stay ordered by the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Bieghler was convicted for the 1981 deaths of Tommy Miller, who Bieghler suspected tipped police to Bieghler's drug dealing activities, and Miller's pregnant wife, Kimberly Jane Miller. Bieghler had appealed [...]

The Indonesian government on Thursday submitted a draft law to parliament that would grant the Aceh province some degree of self-rule. The proposal comes after the historic signing of a peace accord in August between Indonesia and the rebel group, Free Aceh Movement (GAM) . The legislation will be debated soon, and is expected to [...]

Canadian Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper , elected earlier this week and slated to be sworn in February 6 by Canada's Governor-General , went out of his way at his first news conference Thursday to reassert the importance of Canada's Arctic sovereignty. Responding to a comment by US Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins that the Northwest [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging federal airport regulations that require passengers to show identification before boarding airplanes. Libertarian activist John Gilmore had argued that the regulations, which have not been publicly disclosed, constituted an illegal search and violated his right to travel freely. The federal [...]