Australian acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Saturday officially announced Australia's rejection of a US request to accept foreign Guantanamo detainees. This was the second request by the Bush administration regarding Australia's acceptance of prisoners of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, and came in response President-elect Barack Obama's vow to close the prison. The first [...]

Imprisoned Zimbabwe human rights activist and head of Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) Jestina Mukoko has allegedly been tortured and forced by prison officials to ingest drugs, according to a report in South Africa's Sunday Independent. The torture and poisoning has allegedly taken place in Mukoko's solitary confinement cell at Chikurubi Maximum Security prison where she [...]

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Friday signed a controversial media bill into law that gives power to a communication commission to regulate broadcasting with threats of fines or incarceration. The Communications Amendment Bill of 2008 allows the minister of information to control aspects of broadcast content. Kibaki stated that his assent to the bill was [...]

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS) on Friday charged Captain Robert Semrau with second-degree murder in the killing of an Afghan citizen. Semrau is specifically charged under the National Defense Act with shooting, with the intent to kill, an unarmed Afghan male in the Helmand province of Afghanistan in October. Semrau was stationed with [...]

A Zimbabwe judge ruled Friday that Zimbabwe Peace Project leader Jestina Mukoko and 31 other activists charged with plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe must remain in jail over the weekend. High Court Judge Alphias Chitakunye denied a motion for the activists' immediate release, and held that they must remain in custody until they appear [...]

Human rights group Amnesty International USA on Friday accused the US of insufficiently responding to the Gaza crisis in a letter sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice . The letter claimed that the US response has been "lopsided," and urged Rice to push all parties to an immediate cease-fire: Amnesty International USA is particularly [...]

Pakistan on Friday said a bilateral extradition treaty would be required if it were to transfer Mumbai terror attack suspects to India. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a television interview that no such treaty exists and that it will not transfer the suspects without one. India has claimed that such an agreement [...]

Police in China detained five parents of children who became sick after drinking melamine-tainted milk , preventing the parents from participating in a Friday news conference. One of the parents said that they had been given no reason for their detention. Other parents were allowed to host the news conference , calling for research into [...]

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed into law amendments to the country's penal code ending jury trials for terrorism or treason suspects and giving prosecutors broader investigative authority on terrorism or treason related cases. The suspects will now be tried by a panel of three judges. Proponents of the changes say they will strengthen [...]

Australian acting prime minister Julia Gillard on Friday said it was "unlikely" that the country would accept foreign detainees released from the Guantanamo Bay military prison, but that her country was considering a second request to do so by the administration of US President George W. Bush . Gillard's statement comes after opposition leader Malcolm [...]