Tuesday, Dec 16th
Last update09:33:48 AM GMT
Human Rights Glance
The Alabama House has reached back into history and apologized for how authorities mishandled the 1944 rape of a young black woman by a gang of white men as she walked home from church in a southwestern Alabama town.
The House on Tuesday approved by an apparent unanimous voice vote a resolution that expresses "deepest sympathies and solemn regrets" to Recy Taylor, who is now 91 years old and lives in Florida.
One of the most intense scandals the field of psychology has faced over the last decade is the involvement of several of its members in enabling Bush's worldwide torture regime. Numerous health professionals worked for the U.S. government to help understand how best to mentally degrade and break down detainees.
At the center of that controversy was -- and is -- Dr. Larry James. James, a retired Army colonel, was the Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo in 2003, at the height of the abuses at that camp, and then served in the same position at Abu Ghraib during 2004.
The Knesset passed a segregation bill today. Palestinian Israelis are not allowed to live in Jewish localities built on land confiscated from them. Government policy also makes sure they cannot build on the little private land that was left in their ownership. How long can Jewish Israelis continue pretending that Palestinians do not exist?
A U.S. soldier was sentenced to 24 years in prison Wednesday after saying "the plan was to kill people" in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers to kill unarmed Afghan civilians.
The plea deal had been in place for nearly two months, so the sentence "wasn't really a surprise" to Morlock, Spinner told reporters.
The Cuban government has freed the last two dissidents still in jail after a crackdown on opposition activists in 2003. Jose Ferrer and Felix Navarro were among 75 opponents of the government arrested eight years ago.
The dissidents' freedom was brokered by the Roman Catholic Church last year, with most agreeing to go into exile. The remaining prisoners had refused to leave the island. Mr Navarro, 57, a teacher and political activist, and 40-year-old Mr Ferrer, a fisherman, were freed early on Wednesday.
The British government doesn't "participate in, solicit, encourage or condone" the use of torture for any purpose, the British foreign secretary said. British Foreign Secretary William said his office was determined to strengthen reporting mechanisms for torture or mistreatment for overseas staff.
"The U.K. government's policy is clear," he said in a statement. "We do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for any purpose."
The Palestinian Authority asked for international protection Monday citing a sharp rise in Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
The call came after three Israelis from the Havat Maon settlement allegedly stabbed and seriously injured 33-year-old Mahmud Ibrahim Awad of Khirbat Tuba, a tiny village south of the West Bank city of Hebron, as he was walking home Monday morning. Awad was stabbed in the head, chest and arm.
In another incident, Israeli settlers allegedly opened fire at Palestinians during a funeral in the village of Beit Ommar, north of Hebron, injuring two people. One of them, a 59-year-old, was reported in critical condition. The second suffered injuries in the leg.
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