A Russian NGO said Monday that a group of Russian human rights activists have urged Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to work to secure the transfer of jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev from penal colonies in Siberia to prison camps in Moscow or the surrounding area. The call to [...]

A major Nepalese radio station appealed to the country's Supreme Court Sunday after its office was raided and equipment seized by Nepalese police on Friday. Kantipur FM filed a writ to the court to condemn the raid and to stop the government from implementing a press ordinance that prohibits FM radio stations from broadcasting. Most [...]

Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says he has a "growing concern" that the federal government's proposed anti-terrorism legislation does not meet international standards for political and civil rights. After posting a confidential copy of the draft bill on his website last week, Stanhope says he is pleased to participate in continued negotiations over [...]

The FBI has conducted secret surveillance of US citizens and legal residents for up to 18 months without notifying the Justice Department, according to documents released Monday by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) . EPIC made a request under Freedom of Information Act for documents relating to the FBI's use of Patriot Act provisions, [...]

A former Guantanamo Bay detainee was arrested in Russia's Caucasus yesterday after evidence surfaced that he was involved in a rebel attack there last week. Rasul Kudayev was one of seven Russian nationals arrested by US troops in Afghanistan, and was released from Guantanamo in March 2004 and turned over to Russian officials. He was [...]

Sanjar Umarov , head of Uzbekistan's Sunshine Uzbekistan opposition coalition, was arrested and charged with corruption Sunday. The state prosecutor's office has said that Umarov is charged with stealing money through his business dealings, though Sunshine Uzbekistan officials say Umarov had no remaining business interests in Uzbekistan . Umarov has been critical of President Islam [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee will likely call Focus on the Family founder James Dobson , to testify at confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers , Committee chairman Arlen Specter said Sunday. In an October 5 radio address, Dobson called for support of Miers and hinted to having information from the White House [...]

Waddah al-Sheikh, who served as a senior officer in the investigations and evidence unit at Hakmiya, Iraq's main intelligence agency under the rule of Saddam Hussein, became the first witness to testify in Hussein's trial Sunday. Court officials feared that al-Sheikh, who is dying of cancer and is one of the main witnesses at the [...]

Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of the Afghanistan magazine Haqooq-i-Zan (translated as Women's Rights), was sentenced Sunday to two years in jail after being convicted of blasphemy for his publication of anti-Islamic articles. On Saturday, Kabul's Primary Court convicted Mohaqiq of blasphemy on advisement from the Ulema Council , Afghanistan's body of Islamic clergy. Mohaqiq was [...]

The number of women incarcerated in state and federal prisons in 2004 was up by four percent compared with the year before, with women making up seven percent of all inmates, according to a report issued Sunday by the US DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics. The increase in female incarcerations is more than double the [...]