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 The Bush administration's restriction on the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research was outdated and increasingly unpopular.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 [...]

The Chinese government released two democracy activists Thursday after serving eight years of their ten-year prison sentences, according to US-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) . The two activists, Yang Zili and Zhang Yonghai, were sentenced to prison along with two other activists in 2003 for "subversion of state power" and "attempting to overthrow the [...]

The Sri Lankan government Saturday denied allegations by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that recent Sri Lankan military action against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has caused some 2,800 civilian deaths and may constitute war crimes. Pillay on Friday cited "credible sources" for the stated number of civilian deaths [...]

The government of Switzerland said Friday it will follow standards set by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) , adopting a more stringent definition of tax evasion and agreeing to cooperate with other countries in evasion investigations. Unlike many other countries, Switzerland differentiates between tax fraud and tax evasion , and tax evasion [...]