Human Rights Glance
Human rights groups have vowed to track George W Bush round the world after their success in forcing him to cancel a trip to Switzerland amid concerns over protests and a threatened arrest warrant.
Katherine Gallagher, a lawyer with the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, said: "The reach of the convention against torture is wide. This case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next. "Torturers, even if they are former presidents of the United States, must be held to account and prosecuted."
George Bush issued travel warning by human rights organisations
Ex-Taliban base commander collapses in Guantánamo shower, dies.
A 48-year-old ex-Taliban commander dropped dead of an apparent heart attack after exercising on an elliptical machine inside Guantánamo's most populous prison camp, the military said Thursday.
The dead man, Awal Gul, had been in U.S. custody since Christmas 2001 and at the prison camps in southeast Cuba for more than eight years. He was designated by the Obama administration as one of 48 ``indefinite detainees,'' meaning the U.S. would neither repatriate him nor put him on trial.
Jewish Peace Group to Join Arab-Americans in SF Protest
Hundreds of people, mostly Arab-Americans, are expected to gather Saturday in downtown San Francisco to support anti-government protests in Egypt, and a large contingent of Jews representing a Bay Area peace-advocacy group will join them, one of its leaders says.
“We are deeply inspired by their push for democracy and freedom,” said Cecilie Surasky, deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, based in Oakland.
Palestinians condemn US plan to settle refugees in South America
Palestinians have expressed shock and dismay at the US suggestion to settle Palestinian refugees in Argentina and Chile rather than let them return to ancestral land in Israel.
Representatives of the Palestinian diaspora said the plan to ship displaced Palestinians from the Middle East to a new homeland across the Atlantic clashed with their fundamental right to go home.
Pakistan prisoners in Afghan jails despair
For Wakeel Khan, the worst aspect of the disappearance of his son Hameedullah was initially not knowing his fate. Hameedullah disappeared from the tribal region of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan in a 2008 military operation. For a while, it seemed that he had fallen off the face of the earth.
"It was five, six months after my son went missing that I found out he was at Bagram [the main US base in Afghanistan]," a visibly upset Mr Khan - who served in the Pakistan Army for 15 years - told the BBC. "The Red Cross helped us get in touch with him in jail, but for two years, he couldn't even tell us why he'd been arrested.
HUD Offers Latest Obama Administration Attempt To Strengthen LGBT Rights
The Department of Housing and Urban Development unveiled a series of proposed rules on Thursday designed to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals from discrimination when applying for federal housing assistance.
The HUD proposal marks the latest in a string of Obama administration attempts to enhance gay rights through federal regulation, which may offer a way forward for advocates who worry that legislative efforts have little hope of success this year.
Israeli rights group B'Tselem urges government to probe Gaza War
An Israeli human rights group Wednesday urged the government to launch an independent probe into a three-week Israeli offensive in Gaza which killed some 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them non-combatants.
"Better late than never: even two years since Operation Cast Lead, an independent Israeli investigation is crucial to achieve accountability and prevent future violations," B'Tselem said in a statement, issued on the anniversary of the end of the Gaza War, which took place in the winter of 2008-09.
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