The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that it would conduct an internal investigation into reports that Israeli soldiers have committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians. The announcement follows soldiers' reports of civilian killings and vandalism under liberal rules of engagement during a recent operation in the Gaza Strip. It also came on the same [...]

The Chinese government on Friday detained a former soldier who has called for an investigation into the 1989 killings of pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square . Chinese human rights organization Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW) said that Zhang Shijun, a former member of the Chinese army's 162nd motorized infantry division, has been detained (CRLW [...]

Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi reportedly committed suicide Wednesday after serving one month of a 30-month prison sentence for insulting Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . Both the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHR) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported that Mirsayafi had been suffering from depression , with ICHR reporting that Mirsayafi [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in an order made public Thursday that defense contractor CACI International is not immune from a lawsuit brought by Abu Ghraib torture victims, denying CACI's motion to dismiss. Judge Gerald Bruce Lee held that the four plaintiffs could go forward with [...]

Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav was indicted Thursday on two counts of rape for allegedly assaulting several female employees in the 1990s. The indictment, which was filed in Tel Aviv District Court, charges Katsav with two counts of rape, multiple counts of sexual harassment and forced indecent acts, and witness intimidation. The alleged rapes were [...]

The government of Pakistan President Ali Asif Zardari and his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday, asking the court to review its February decision banning former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother from holding elected office. The Supreme Court based its decision on a criminal conviction [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Wednesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will consider accepting in the US the 17 Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release. The DOJ is still exploring where to transfer cleared detainees, and has declined to repatriate the Uighurs despite Chinese demands because they have [...]

A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday that the DOJ will limit prison restrictions on John Walker Lindh , a California man known as the "American Taliban." Lindh is serving a 20-year sentence in an Indiana federal prison after pleading guilty in 2002 to supplying services to the Taliban. DOJ spokesman [...]

The UK will publish the guidance it gives to intelligence officers for questioning suspects overseas, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament in a written statement Wednesday. Restating the UK's unequivocal condemnation of torture, Brown said that making the applicable interrogation standards public will "protect the reputation of security and intelligence services and … reassure ourselves [...]

Israeli forces arrested 12 Hamas leaders during raids in the West Bank Thursday. Among those seized were former Palestine deputy prime minister Nasseredin al-Shaer and Hamas officials Adnan Asfur and Raafat Nassif. The seizures came after Israel and Hamas failed to reach an agreement on a prisoner exchange on Tuesday. Israel did not obtain the [...]