In a detailed analysis of the European Union’s counter-terrorism initiatives in the area of criminal law since 9-11, Amnesty International claims the absence of concrete human rights safeguards in many of these initiatives is likely to undermine efforts to fight… Read moreAmnesty International blasts EU
The New York Police Department is requesting funds to install hundreds more video cameras throughout the city to help fight crime and combat terrorism. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly wants to put up some 400 surveillance cameras on high-crime and high-traffic… Read moreNYC: Big Brother to get bigger
The British oil company Dana Petroleum announced May 26 it has acquired a large interest in the ongoing oil explorations offshore Morocco’s town of Safi. Dana, based in Scottish Aberdeen, produces oil in the British sector of the North Sea… Read moreOil industry eyes disputed African offshore zones
Thirty-seven Islamists have been charged in Mauritania with belonging to an illegal group after being arrested last month on suspicion of links to a organization tied to al-Qaeda. Another 14 were released May 27, and some accused the authorities of… Read moreCrackdown on Islamists in Mauritania
Spain’s foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos began talks May 30 with his Moroccan and Algerian counterparts in the latest attempt to find a solution to the decades-long conflict in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Mohamed Benaissa of Morocco and Algerian Abdelaziz Belajadem… Read morePolisario Front demands UN action on Western Sahara
Violence against women and girls in Afghanistan is pervasive, says Amnesty International today, releasing its latest report “Afghanistan: Women Under Attack.” “Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it,” the report finds…. Read moreAfghanistan: women still under attack
In an editorial for the July issue of The Progressive, editor Matthew Rothschild makes a serious case for war crimes charges against Rumsfeld and Bush, as well as other White House and Pentagon figures… Stripping Rumsfeld and Bush of Impunity… Read moreWar crimes charges for Rumsfeld, Bush?
A conference questioning Turkey’s official position on the World War I-era Armenian genocide has been cancelled following pressure from the government. The conference, entitled “Ottoman Armenians at the Decline of the Empire: Academic Responsibility and Issues of Democracy,” was to… Read moreTurkish government threats halt conference on Armenian genocide
Stephen Ulph of the national-secuity think-tank The Jamestown Foundation writes that “militant Islamist forums” in Algeria are circulating a statement dated May 8 purporting to announce the formation of a new al-Qaeda cell, apparenrly seeking to revive Algeria’s dormant civil… Read moreAl-Qaeda announces Algeria franchise
The Intifada which has broken out in Morocco-occupied Western Sahara continues too grow, and has even spread to Morocco proper. Yesterday, bludgeon-wielding police raided a university campus in Rabat to break up a protest by Saharawi students held in solidarity… Read moreWestern Sahara “Intifada” grows
Clashes between Moroccan security forces and Saharawi demonstrators have broken out in towns across Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, following the violent repression of pro-independence protests. Saharawi human rights activists say that nineteen people are missing in police custody, including one whole… Read more“Intifada” erupts in Western Sahara
At least 25 are dead in an apparent suicide bombing at the Bari Imam Sufi shrine at Nurpur village outside Pakistan’s capital Islamabad this morning. Thousands of devotees were attending the last day of a five-day festival at the time… Read morePakistan: more sectarian terror
