Human Rights Glance
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.
Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of "trophy" photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed.
With a new round of Guantanamo prosecutions on the horizon, a senior Pentagon official has ordered war court defense lawyers to sign freshly minted ground rules that not only gag what they can say to their alleged terrorist clients but also to the public.
The United States was attacked for its human rights record on Friday as opponents including Cuba and Iran slammed its failure to close Guantanamo Bay and its decision to maintain military trials for terror suspects.
Immigration enforcement in the United States is plagued by unjust treatment of detainees, including inadequate access to lawyers and insufficient medical care, and by the excessive use of prison-style detention, the human rights arm of the Organization of American States said Thursday.
