North Africa
Libya: suspend death sentences of Qaddafi loyalists
Human Rights Watch called on Libya to suspend the death sentences of two former officials convicted of crimes related to the country’s uprising in June 2011.
Greater Middle East
Syria: thousands of detainees lost in ‘black hole’
Human Rights Watch finds that tens of thousands who peacefully demonstrated against President Bashar Assad are languishing in Syrian prisons, subjected to an policy of torture.
Afghanistan
Pakistan stock market soars on terror wave
Over the past year of growing violence and chaos in Pakistan, the Karachi Stock Exchange surged more than 44%, placing it among the world’s top-performing stock markets.
South Asia
Bangladesh MP sentenced to death for war crimes
The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh sentenced Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, a lawmaker for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, to death for war crimes.
Watching the Shadows
Gitmo judge allows 9-11 hearings to continue
A military judge refused defendants’ request to suspend pretrial hearings in the case against five Guantánamo Bay prisoners related to the 9-11 terrorist attack.
The Andes
Justice catches up to Chile, Ecuador war criminals
An ex-general in Chile killed himself rather than face transfer to a general-population prison, as trial opened in Quito for three former officers accused in extrajudicial killings.
The Caribbean
US accused of violating human rights in Puerto Rico
Residents of Vieques, an island off Puerto Rico long used as a US Navy exercise range, brought a complaint before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
The Caribbean
Dominican Republic excludes descendants of ‘illegal’ Haitians
The Dominican high court ruled that undocumented immigrants are “in transit,” depriving their Dominican children of citizenship—including all born since 1929.
Central America
Honduras indigenous leader’s detention challenged
Legal advocates are appealing to international bodies to block the detention of an indigenous leader whose crime seems to be supporting anti-dam protests.
Mexico
Mexico: Cananea strike broken, miners left jobless
Grupo México and the Mexican government succeeded in smashing a strike in an historic copper mining town which now suffers from crime and unemployment.
Syria
Evo Morales betrays Syrian people
By saying the US “funds rebels that fight against presidents who don’t support capitalism or imperialism,” Evo Morales allies himself with a regime that is committing war crimes.
The Andes
Bolivia, Venezuela reject US drug criticism
For a fifth year running, the White House "blacklisted" Bolivia and Venezuela for perceived insufficient anti-drug efforts—and both governments reacted with anger.