The Washington State Senate on Friday passed a landmark gay civil rights bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, lending and employment. The legislation was approved by the House last week, but was amended in the Senate and must go back to the House for final approval, which is expected later [...]

British police Friday charged Muhedin Ali, 27, in connection with the attempt to bomb the London subway and a bus on July 21, 2005. Ali was arrested January 17 and is charged with helping another bomber, Hussein Osman, evade arrest. Ali is the 17th person charged over the attacks that failed when the bombs did [...]

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 [...]