Human Rights Glance
Imagine that the more than 700 Guantanamo files released two weeks ago by WikiLeaks contained information explaining how interrogators obtained "intelligence" from "war on terror" detainees captured or sold to US forces after 9/11, such as this firsthand account:
"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves and had been left there for 18, 24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold.
Filling in the Gaping Holes in WikiLeaks' Guantanamo Detainee Files
Albinos in Tanzania murdered or raped as AIDS "cure"
Hundreds of albinos are thought to have been killed for black magic purposes in Tanzania and albino girls are being raped because of a belief they offer a cure for AIDS, a Canadian rights group said on Thursday.
At least 63 albinos, including children, are known to have been killed, mostly in the remote northwest of the country. "We believe there are hundreds and hundreds of killings in Tanzania, but only a small number are being reported to the police," Peter Ash, founder and director of Under The Same Sun (UTSS), told Reuters.
'Hundreds jailed for degrading Syria'
Human rights groups say hundreds of ordinary Syrians have been jailed for "degrading the prestige of the state" amid an intensifying crackdown on anti-government protests.
Hundreds of detainees received a three-year prison sentence on Tuesday while mass arrests continue, to pre-empt further unrest on the Muslim day of prayer on Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Israel killed 1,300 kids in Gaza: UN
The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories says Israel has killed 1,300 Palestinian children since 2000.
Richard Falk announced the figure during a press conference in the Jordanian capital city of Amman late on Monday, the Palestinian News Network reported on its website.
In his latest report, Falk noted that in 2010, the Israeli army's gunfire and shelling of the Gaza Strip claimed the lives of 17 children.
Since his appointment in May 2008, Falk has faced hindrances by the Israeli regime, which has refused to cooperate with the rapporteur in his field missions.
For first time, Guantanamo's detainees come into view
For years, the U.S. has cast the captives at the Navy base prison camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as dangerous terrorists, and many may be. There's Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who's bragged that he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
There's Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who may stand trial soon on charges of orchestrating the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors off the coast of Yemen. But no comprehensive list has been available of who's currently being held at Guantanamo. Until now.
Apple's Chinese workers treated 'inhumanely, like machines'
An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.
The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an "anti-suicide" pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.
Guantanamo secret files show U.S. often held innocent Afghans
Afghans make up the largest group by nationality held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, an estimated 220 men and boys in all. Yet they were frequently found to have had nothing to do with international terrorism, according to more than 750 secret intelligence assessments that were written at Guantanamo between 2002 and 2009. The assessments were obtained by WikiLeaks and passed to McClatchy.
In at least 44 cases, U.S. military intelligence officials concluded that detainees had no connection to militant activity at all, a McClatchy examination of the assessments, which cover both former and current detainees, found. The number might be even higher, but couldn't be determined from the information in some assessments, which often were just a few paragraphs long for Afghans who were released in 2002 and 2003.
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