Human Rights

JOHANNESBURG - A U.N.-backed Congolese military operation to oust rebels from eastern Congo has caused more civilian casualties than damage to rebels, with more than 1,400 people deliberately killed over a nine-month period, human rights groups said Monday. Full Story »

TRIPOLI, Libya - A leading human rights group said Saturday that Libyan dissidents continue to face arbitrary detention and unfair trials, despite a limited expansion of freedoms since the country began to shed its pariah status several years ago. Full Story »

TRIPOLI (AFP) - Libya is making some progress on freedom of speech but a climate of repression remains in the country, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Saturday. Full Story »

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya is jailing people for their political views, years after committing to reform, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Saturday. Full Story »

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - The Interamerican Court of Human Rights has criticized Mexico for a lack of diligence in investigating the slayings of three young women in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez. Full Story »

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A former Argentine navy spy nicknamed the "Angel of Death" went on trial Friday for his alleged involvement in the disappearance and torture of dissidents during the country's military dictatorship. Full Story »

HAVANA - Government supporters screaming insults and slogans broke up two tiny International Human Rights Day marches Thursday and chased away a British diplomat onlooker, pounding on his car as he drove away. Full Story »

HAVANA (Reuters) - Hundreds of government supporters drowned out two small opposition protests in Cuba's capital on Thursday, chanting and jeering at the dissidents as they marched to mark International Human Rights Day. Full Story »

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Rising land disputes and crackdowns on government critics are "worrying trends" in Cambodia, a UN representative said Thursday in a speech marking international human rights day. Full Story »

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt said on Thursday that it will not abolish the death penalty because it is a deterrent, even though human rights groups say that fair trials are not guaranteed. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG - Supporters of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe used rape to terrorize the political opposition during last year's contested elections, international human rights activists said Thursday. Full Story »

OSLO - President Barack Obama says lasting peace requires human rights and economic opportunity for individuals, and sanctions against regimes that violate international rules. Full Story »

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - The authorities in Indian Kashmir placed a number of top separatists under house arrest on Thursday in a bid to derail planned protest rallies marking World Human Rights Day. Full Story »

LONDON (Reuters) - Human rights violations in Iran are as poor as at any time in the past 20 years, the human rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday. Full Story »

LONDON (AFP) - Human rights violations in Iran are as bad as at any time in 20 years, London-based watchdog Amnesty International said on Thursday in a report on a government crackdown against election protests. Full Story »

HAVANA - Hundreds of government supporters shouted insults and pro-Castro slogans at about 50 wives, mothers and other female relatives of Cuban political prisoners as they marched Wednesday through a crowded Havana neighborhood in the name of human rights. Full Story »

GENEVA (AFP) - North Korea on Wednesday rejected calls by members of the UN Human Rights Council to grant access to a UN independent expert to assess the human rights situation in the country, a report said. Full Story »

NEW DELHI - Indian children are increasingly caught in the middle of fighting between the government and communist rebels in impoverished rural areas, with at least 42 schools attacked in the past year, a human rights group said Wednesday. Full Story »