A week after Nepal’s king dismissed his government and imposed emergency rule by personal decree, the isolated Himalayan nation has largely disappeared from the headlines. The NY Times reported Feb. 9 in short page 13 story that King Gyanendra has… Read moreNepal: crackdown on rights activists
More ironic timing for Washington’s push to restore military ties with Indonesia. With Condi Rice on the stump claiming Jakarta is cleaning up its nasty human rights situation, the DC-based Marijuana Policy Project sends us the following chilling story: In… Read moreIndonesian justice: firing squad for pot possession
It appears that different factions of the American Indian Movement (AIM) have released statements either condemning or supporting Ward Churchill, in equally vehement terms. First this, from the AIM Grand Governing Council in Minneapolis: The American Indian Movement Grand Governing… Read moreAIM splits over Churchill affair
Tom Wilner, attorney for 11 Kuwaiti men arrested by US forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan and now held at Guantanamo Bay, told the press his clients say they were beaten, tortured and subjected to electro-shock and sodomy to extract confessions…. Read moreKuwaiti GitMo detainees: We were tortured
The Feb. 8 NY Times featured an op-ed by Shirin Ebadi, Iranian dissident attorney and winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, co-authored with Hadi Ghaem of Human Rights Watch: "The Human Rights Case Against Attacking Iran". Ebadi is skeptical… Read moreIranian Nobel Laureate dissident blasts US intervention
A traditional Punjabi festival of the approaching spring, Basant, is the source of controversy in Pakistan, where Islamic clerics went to court in an unsuccessful bid to have the celebrations banned and revelry in Lahore left at least 17 dead…. Read moreIslamists protest Pakistan spring festival
What an irony: Just after the tsunami’s horrific toll has (briefly) focused world attention on Indonesia’s grisly counter-insurgency war in Aceh, the US State Department is moving to approve restoration of official Pentagon ties to Indonesia’s military. Indonesia’s participation in… Read moreUS to resume Indonesia military ties
On Feb. 5, the eve of Guerrero gubernatorial elections, suspected guerillas of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) attacked police posts in Acapulco, leaving four dead, including a 15-year-old boy who was making a call at a payphone. (AP, Feb. 5)… Read morePurported guerilla attacks mar Mexican elections
Guerillas of the Baluchistan Liberation Army threatened to blow up Pakistan’s most important oil and gas facility at Dhodak, in the central province of Punjab. The statement, phoned into several newspapers Feb. 6 by a spokesman called Azad Baluch (an… Read moreBaluchi rebels threaten Pakistan oilfields
For the fourth time in a week, a public speech by Ward Churchill was cancelled for "security reasons"–this time at his own University of Colorado. Each school he was scheduled to appear at reported an avalanche of calls and e-mails… Read moreChurchill cancelled at four more colleges
Newly-confirmed US Atttorney General Alberto Gonzales may begin his term as an indicted war criminal. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights filed new documents January 31 with the German Federal Prosecutor looking into war crimes charges against high-ranking US… Read moreGonzales may face war crimes charges in Germany
Reporters Without Borders issued a statement Feb. 5 protesting a "smear campaign" against Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet, who has been accused of "treason" in numerous pro-government media outlets since he ran a piece in the Spanish daily El Mundo on… Read moreMorocco: journalist threatened for Western Sahara reportage
