Human Rights

JOHANNESBURG - The government of Equatorial Guinea says the African country's ruler of 30 years has been re-elected with 95.37 percent of votes, while opponents and international human rights groups denounced the electoral process in Africa's No. 3 oil producer as fraudulent. Full Story »

HAVANA - Activists from 32 little-known organizations opposed to Cuba's communist government issued a call for an end to social repression on the island at a Thursday gathering in the home of a prominent human rights activist. Full Story »

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt has become a police state where citizens receive no protection from torture, human rights groups said in a report published on Thursday. Full Story »

SEOUL, South Korea - The communist government led by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il must be investigated for crimes against humanity for alleged human rights violations including extreme torture, sexual slavery and prison brutality, defectors said Thursday. Full Story »

SRINAGAR, India - Nearly 2,600 bodies have been discovered in single unmarked and mass graves throughout mountainous Indian Kashmir, human rights activists said Wednesday, alleging some of the dead were likely innocent people killed by security forces. Full Story »

SRINAGAR (Reuters) - A human rights group in Kashmir said on Wednesday it had discovered some 1,700 unmarked graves linked to the region's separatist conflict and called on authorities to launch an investigation. Full Story »

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - A human rights group in Kashmir urged authorities Wednesday to launch a probe into 2,700 unmarked graves of people believed to have died as a result of the region's revolt against Indian rule. Full Story »

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's prime minister must take action to prosecute security personnel for serious rights violations in the country's insurgency-plagued south, a rights group said Wednesday. Full Story »

JAKARTA (AFP) - Rampant corruption in Indonesia's forestry sector costs the government two billion dollars a year and undermines plans to use forest conservation to offset carbon emissions, a report said Tuesday. Full Story »

GENEVA (AFP) - UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Tuesday sharply criticised a Swiss vote banning minarets, condemning a growing wave of "anti-foreigner scaremongering" in several countries. Full Story »

GENEVA - The United Nations called Switzerland's ban on new minarets "clearly discriminatory" and deeply divisive, and the Swiss foreign minister acknowledged Tuesday the government was very concerned about how the vote would affect the country's image. Full Story »

HAVANA - The ailing son of one of Cuba's revolutionary heroes said he was detained by security officials for three days after protesting that authorities wouldn't let him leave the country for treatment. Full Story »

MANILA (Reuters) - Hundreds of Philippine journalists and human rights activists staged a protest near the presidential palace on Monday, demanding justice for 30 colleagues who were among 57 people massacred last week in the troubled south. Full Story »

JAKARTA (AFP) - Amnesty International called Monday for an investigation into a "pattern of unchecked human rights violations" by Indonesian police in restive Papua province. Full Story »

PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) - Leaders of the Commonwealth admitted French-speaking Rwanda and admonished military-ruled Fiji on Sunday, as they emphasized their club's commitment to promoting democracy and human rights. Full Story »

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Iran, which is often accused by the West of human rights violations, backed a plan on Sunday to earmark $20 million to help shed light on and "resist" such abuses by the United States and Britain, media reported. Full Story »

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Spain will seek to establish a new bilateral agreement on EU-Cuba ties, including human rights, in the first half of 2010 when it will hold the EU's rotating presidency, its foreign minister said Saturday. Full Story »

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian authorities have confiscated Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's medal, the human rights lawyer said Thursday, in a sign of the increasingly drastic steps Tehran is taking against any dissent. Full Story »