A Spanish judge has said that he will ask the US if it plans to prosecute six US officials for allegedly contributing to torture at Guantanamo Bay before deciding whether to open an investigation in Spain. Judge Eloy Velasco of Spain's Audiencia Nacional on Monday requested information from the US about potential charges against six [...]

A court in Zimbabwe on Wednesday released on bail 15 human rights activists, including activist and journalist Jestina Mukoko , who had been ordered back into custody Tuesday. Mukoko is the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) . The indicted activists were accused of planning a coup against President Robert Mugabe , but were [...]

A German court on Wednesday rejected an emergency suit filed by accused Nazi prison guard John Demjanjuk seeking to block his deportation from the US. Demjanjuk faces deportation to Germany, where in March a Munich district court charged him with 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for his alleged involvement at the Sobibor concentration camp. [...]

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Wednesday that the US is considering sending Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainees to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation as part of the efforts to close the prison facility. Gates told reporters in Saudi Arabia that while no official decisions have been made, he has been impressed with the country's rehabilitation [...]

A Greek court ruled Tuesday that same-sex marriages performed in the country are invalid. Two same-sex couples were married last year by a local mayor on a small Aegean island, as the 1982 Greek civil marriage law simply saying that marriages must be between two "persons" without specifying that one party must be a man [...]

The Appeals Chamber for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Tuesday increased the sentence of Veselin Sljivancanin from five to 17 years. Sljivancanin was convicted of aiding and abetting the killings of over 200 Croatian prisoners of war near Vukovar in 1991. Prosecutors appealed the sentences imposed on Mile Mrksic and [...]

Sophie Richardson : "The Chinese government's secrecy in handling unrest in Tibet since the March 2008 protests erupted in Lhasa was highlighted again on April 8, 2009, when a simple dispatch from the official news agency Xinhua reported that four Tibetans accused of arson in three different incidents had been sentenced to death. Two of [...]

The Council of the District of Columbia voted Tuesday to recognize same-sex marriages performed outside of Washington, DC. The bill, proposed by DC Councilman Phil Mendelson , was approved by a 12-1 vote. The dissenting vote was cast by Councilman Marion Barry . The legislation was given preliminary approval last month. The measure must now [...]

The Maine House of Representatives voted 89-57 Tuesday in favor of a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the state. The vote follows last week's approval by the Maine Senate . The proposed legislation now faces one more vote before the Senate and the House before it goes before Governor John Baldacci , who [...]

A court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday ordered back into custody 18 human rights activists, including activist and journalist Jestina Mukoko and freelance journalist Andrison Manyere. Mukoko is the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) , and Manyere is a former aid to Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai . The indicted activists were accused of [...]