Human Rights Glance
A judge sentenced a couple to the maximum 14 years in prison with hard labor under Malawi's anti-gay legislation, and crowds jeered the two men as they were driven from the court house to jail Thursday.
The harsh sentence for unnatural acts and gross indecency had been expected after the same judge convicted Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza earlier this week under laws dating from the colonial era. The case has drawn international condemnation and sparked a debate on human rights in this conservative southern African country.
Gay couple sentenced to maximum 14 years in Malawi
Change you can believe in? Secrecy still veils Guantanamo hearings
The first full military commission hearings here since Barack Obama became president and pledged to deliver transparency were no more open than the court process had been under President George W. Bush, critics say.
The hearings on Canadian Omar Khadr's claim of abuse opened with a new rule book and closed with the Pentagon banishing four veteran reporters. One of the witnesses was subpoened in secret, six testified under pseudonyms and security officers closed the court to screen a video that's available on YouTube.
Feds tell court they can decide what you eat
Attorneys for the federal government have argued in a lawsuit pending in federal court in Iowa that individuals have no "fundamental right" to obtain what food they choose.
The brief was filed April 26 in support of a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ban on the interstate sale of raw milk.
Russian dancer ordered freed in Guantanamo habeas case
A federal court on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to set free from Guantáaamo a former Russian Army ballet dancer turned devout Muslim whose plight captured the imagination of a Massachusetts college town.
Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. ordered the Obama administration to take ``all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps . . . forthwith'' to release Ravil Mingazov, 42, an ethnic Tartar who was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and turned over to U.S. forces.
Spanish judge who investigated Bush torture crimes is suspended
High-profile Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has been suspended from his post by the country's judicial body. The decision was unanimously adopted by the General Council of the Judiciary.
He is due to face trial on charges that he abused his powers by opening an inquiry in 2008 into crimes committed during Francisco Franco's rule.
Arizona governor signs bill targeting school district’s ethnic studies program
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill targeting a school district’s ethnic studies program on Tuesday, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure.
State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the measure for years, said a Tucson school district program promotes “ethnic chauvinism” and racial resentment toward whites while segregating students by race.
Israel bows to pressure and admits arrest of rights activist
The Israeli authorities finally revealed yesterday that they had been holding a prominent Israeli-Arab human rights activist for several days and had accused him of spying for Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas.
Israel appeared to buckle under intense domestic pressure to release details of the case against Amir Makhoul after a gagging order issued by the courts had prevented the media from reporting details of the case. The order, which covered details including his identity, riled democracy advocates in Israel after a similar case last month involving the secret house arrest of an Israeli journalist.
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