Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced Monday that the government will reinstate deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in response to recent protests by members of the Pakistan lawyers' movement and opposition politicians and supporters. In a televised address, Gilani announced that Chaudhry and other deposed judges will be reinstated March 21, when [...]

The number of immigrants detained by the US has drastically increased over the last decade, according to an AP report issued Sunday. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database, obtain by the AP through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) , indicates that on January 25, 32,000 individuals were detained in the US. This [...]

A group of 16 human rights investigators and judges "shocked to the core" by the events during the most recent Gaza conflict have called for a full investigation of possible violations of the Geneva Conventions in an open letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and all members of the UN Security Council. The signatories [...]

Pakistan opposition leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday defied a house arrest order to lead a march by opposition activists and members of the Pakistan lawyers' movement against President Asif Ali Zardari and his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) . The government had ordered Sharif and many of his supporters to remain in their [...]

The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (Tesev) issued a report Saturday saying that despite recent attempts by the country to broaden property rights for religious minorities, it still falls short of requirements to join the European Union . The majority Muslim country had long confiscated the property of non-Muslim religious foundations , but has [...]

Bolivian President Evo Morales , empowered by his country's new constitution , began redistributing land to indigenous farmers Saturday. In a ceremony on part of the land seized by the government from large owners, Morales turned over about 94,000 acres to Guarani Indians. Morales criticized the treatment of workers on large farms and asked wealthy [...]

Rights activists in Kenya have faced threats since the release in February of a UN report accusing the government of widespread extrajudicial executions, prompting some to leave the country or go into hiding , according to AP Saturday. Western Kenya activists have reportedly been followed by intelligence agents and have received harassing phone calls. Job [...]

Angela Wu : "The Supreme Court recently overturned Board of Immigration Appeals and Fifth Circuit rulings in Negusie v. Holder and found that victims of persecution who are forced to participate in persecution may be entitled to asylum. Petitioner Daniel Girmai Negusie is an Eritrean-Ethiopian Christian who was forcibly conscripted into Eritrea's war against Ethiopia [...]

Jesse Reynolds : "President Obama's recent removal of his predecessor's stem cell policy is a welcome development. The Bush administration's restriction on the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research was outdated and increasingly unpopular. While much of the media coverage of President Obama's announcement has focused on the research's potential and the political [...]

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Saturday were considering offering a compromise deal to opposition factions – including members of the lawyers' movement – currently engaged in crippling anti-government protests and a "long march" on Islamabad, according to local media reports. Under the terms of the deal, the government would [...]