Iran announced on Monday that it would resume uranium enrichment, effectively ending recent negotiations with the European Union . The International Atomic Energy Agency had urged Iran to continue with the negotiation process , but Iran's only concession was a two-day delay in restarting the program to allow inspectors to observe the dismantling of UN [...]

The UN Human Rights Committee has criticized Yemen for not incorporating many of its 2002 recommendations for civil and political rights in the country. Some major concerns of the Committee were judicial independence, inequality for women, domestic violence, 'honor killings', the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) , and alleged serious rights violations used to [...]

A new report released today by Human Rights Watch is adding to international concerns that a Colombian law intended to encourage paramilitary groups to disarm is too soft and would not allow Colombia to punish the paramilitary groups that had attacked leftist opposition rebels clashing with the government. The UN had asked Colombian President Alvaro [...]

Former rebel leader John Garang , who eventually made peace and joined the Sudanese government as a vice-president, died over the weekend in a helicopter crash, sparking riots and threatening to destabilize the region. Officials in Sudan said Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement leader Garang and 13 others died after the presidential helicopter he was traveling [...]

An FBI memo obtained by Newsweek to be reported in its August 8 print edition warned three years ago that government officials could be prosecuted for planning transfers of terrorism suspects to countries that allow torture, a process called extraordinary rendition . A senior FBI official said the memo was only advisory and not an [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday took up a government challenge to a controversial morals law passed by its North-West Frontier Province on the border with Afghanistan that provides for Taliban-style enforcement of Islamic law. President General Pervez Musharraf asked the court earlier this month to rule on the constitutionality of the law that calls [...]

Indonesia Monday announced the membership of a 10-member Truth and Friendship Commission formed to investigate the 1999 violence in East Timor that left around 1,400 dead. Half will hail from Indonesia with the other half coming from East Timor. The two nations announced the panel earlier month while Indonesia rejected calls for international oversight . [...]

The lawyer representing the family of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi , who died in Iranian custody in July 2003 amidst allegations of torture and abuse , was arrested over the weekend on charges of spying. Abdolfattah Soltani was leading an effort to reopen an investigation into Kazemi's death. Iranian courts have so far refused the [...]

Two former military prosecutors characterized the military tribunals at Guantanamo as "a fraud" and rigged" in e-mails written last year and just obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Major Robert Preston wrote to his superviser:I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe [...]

New York Governor George Pataki said late Sunday that he will veto legislation that would permit women to purchase the "morning-after" pill without a prescription, a decision criticized by pro-choice groups as simply an effort to build conservative support for a 2008 presidential run. A similar bill was vetoed last week by Massachusetts Governor Mitt [...]