human rights

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Most Believe Internet Access Is a Human Right
Most Believe Internet Access Is a Human Right
says poll
Mar 8, 2010 8:40 AM CST

Most Believe Internet Access Is a Human Right

Varying attitudes on government oversight

(Newser) - Nearly four out of five people believe that access to the Internet should be universal right for all human beings. A BBC survey of more than 27,000 people from 26 countries found that 79% agree that Internet access is a fundamental right. But there are disagreements among that majority...

USC Prof Fights Terror Charge for Backing Kurds

Supreme Court case puts law to test

(Newser) - A USC professor and human rights activist heads to the Supreme Court next week to fight terror charges for supporting Turkey's Kurdish minority. Ralph Fertig, 79, is a self-described pacifist who says he counseled local leaders on how to peacefully pursue their cause. Those leaders, however, may have been members...

Malaysia Canes 3 Women for Adultery

Minister: 'It was carried out perfectly'

(Newser) - For the first time in Malaysia's history, three women have been caned under Islamic law for having extramarital sex. "It was carried out perfectly," the country's home minister tells Reuters . "Even though the caning did not injure them, they said it caused pain within them." Amnesty...

Saudi Preteen Seeks Divorce From 80-Year-old Husband

Human Rights Commission backing girl

(Newser) - A 12-year-old Saudi girl is seeking a divorce from her 80-year-old husband with the help of the state-run Human Rights Commission. The preteen was married last year to her elderly cousin against her and her mother's wishes in exchange for a $30,000 dowry. It's the first time the Saudi...

North Korea to Free US Missionary

Regime claims rights-activist Robert Park has repented

(Newser) - North Korea says it will free an American missionary who entered the country to protest human rights abuses. State media said the reclusive regime had decided to "leniently forgive" Robert Park, 28, for entering the country on Christmas day because he'd shown "sincere repentance," reports the Washington ...

Pope Urges UK Bishops to Fight Gay Equality Bill

Legislation 'violates the natural law,' pontiff contends

(Newser) - Pope Benedict wants English and Welsh bishops to fight proposed human rights legislation with "missionary zeal." The Equality Bill, which is pending in Parliament, is intended to combat discrimination on the basis of sex, race, disability, religion, or sexual orientation, but the pontiff argues that "it actually...

Police Shut Down 'Mr. Gay China' Pageant

Police say organizers didn't apply 'according to procedures'

(Newser) - Chinese police shut down the “Mr. Gay China” pageant an hour before it was set to start, saying the organizers didn’t apply for permissions “according to the procedures.” The event was seen as a symbol of China’s newfound acceptance of homosexuality, which was illegal in...

Google's Harsh Words for China Just Marketing

Company is doing poorly, and saw convenient rights-related out

(Newser) - The stand Google took against Chinese censorship and web-based malevolence yesterday is as much about the search giant’s self interest as any deep moral ideals, Sarah Lacy writes. “I’m not saying human rights didn’t play into the decision,” but it was surely an afterthought. First...

Onetime Gitmo Detainee Now a Top al-Jazeera Reporter

Al-Hajj finds niche in human rights beat

(Newser) - Sami al-Hajj was a cameraman when US forces captured him in 2001, but now, a year after his release from Guantanamo Bay, he’s mostly seen in front of a camera, as al-Jazeera’s special reporter on human rights. “I wanted to talk for seven years, to make up...

Angelina Jolie Hates Obama
 Angelina Jolie Hates Obama 
HE OWES DARFUR MORE
Dec 11, 2009 8:26 AM CST

Angelina Jolie Hates Obama

Actress slams president's Darfur policy in Newsweek

(Newser) - Angelina Jolie “hates” President Obama so much that she and partner Brad Pitt “get in nasty arguments all the time” about him, sources tell Us —and she lets a bit of her distaste shine through in a piece she wrote for Newsweek on Darfur. “When the...

Obama: 'War Is Sometimes Necessary'
 Obama: 'War Is 
 Sometimes 
 Necessary' 
nobel acceptance speech
Dec 10, 2009 7:53 AM CST

Obama: 'War Is Sometimes Necessary'

Obama accepts peace prize by saying force morally justified

(Newser) - President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today with, paradoxically, a defense of war. Obama began his speech by acknowledging the controversy surrounding his reward, both because his accomplishments are slight and because of the wars he presides over. “We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes,”...

Iran Takes Nobel Winner's Peace Prize

It's never happened before, say outraged officials in Norway

(Newser) - In what would be a dastardly first, Norway has accused Iranian authorities of stealing a Nobel Peace Prize. The prize belongs to Iranian national Shirin Ebadi, a human rights lawyer who received the honor in 2003. “The medal and the diploma have been removed from Dr. Ebadi’s bank...

Race-Speech Obama Is MIA
 Race-Speech Obama Is MIA 
OPINION
Nov 24, 2009 2:13 AM CST

Race-Speech Obama Is MIA

Prez's actions failing to match his clear rhetoric of past

(Newser) - The moral clarity that Barack Obama revealed in his groundbreaking Philadelphia speech on race has been nowhere to be seen recently, writes Richard Cohen. The Obama who made that speech wouldn't have let the Chinese stage-manage his appearances, or allowed the civilian trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed go forward without...

Watchdog: Raúl Just as Bad as Fidel

He shares his brother's disregard for human rights

(Newser) - The perception that Cuba is less repressive under Raúl Castro than Fidel is false, Human Rights Watch says. Dissidents are still harassed by the state, subject to arbitrary detention—532 such cases in the first half of 2009 alone—fired. or denied work. The government also continues to pressure...

Obama, Hu Begin Bridging Divide

Superpowers work to find common ground on nukes, climate, economy

(Newser) - President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao emerged from intense talks today determined to marshal their combined clout on crucial issues, but still showing divisions over economic, security, and human rights issues that have long bedeviled the two powers. "The relationship between our two nations goes far beyond...

Obama Coming Up Short on Human Rights
Obama Coming Up Short
on Human Rights
OPINION
Oct 20, 2009 1:19 AM CDT

Obama Coming Up Short on Human Rights

President's actions don't match the promises that wowed Berliners

(Newser) - President Obama's decision to skip the celebrations of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall highlights the gap between his rhetoric on the campaign trail and the realities of his presidency, writes Bret Stephens. Obama hailed the "dream of freedom" in his big speech in Berlin last...

Two Pilots Face Extradition in Dirty War Death Flights

Some 1,000 Argentines were hurled into sea

(Newser) - Two Argentines charged with piloting notorious "death flights" during the country's brutal military dictatorship are facing extradition. The pilots, one arrested in Argentina and the other in Spain, are accused of flying the flights from which more than 1,000 drugged and blindfolded students, intellectuals, and trade unionists...

Poland OKs Chemical Castration for Pedophiles

Controversial new law also covers incest

(Newser) - A new law in Poland will require convicted pedophiles or those who rape family members to undergo chemical castration when their prison term is up. Human rights groups immediately raised objections, but Poland's prime minister isn't budging—he says the criminals in these cases don't qualify as "human,"...

US to Engage Burmese Junta
 US to Engage Burmese Junta 
Sep 24, 2009 6:09 AM CDT

US to Engage Burmese Junta

Clinton announces change in policy, says sanctions will remain

(Newser) - The US will directly engage with Burma's military leadership in addition to its current sanctions, Hillary Clinton said yesterday. The secretary of State acknowledged that sanctions alone had failed to change "the lack of democracy in Burma and the authorities’ abysmal record on human rights," and it was...

Spain Nabs Alleged Pilot in 'Dirty War'

Charged in 'death flights' that dumped Argentines into sea

(Newser) - Spanish police have arrested a commercial pilot they say flew "death flights" that dumped political malcontents into the sea for Argentina's junta during the Dirty War, the BBC reports. Julio Alberto Poch was nabbed in Valencia as he was preparing to fly a Transavia passenger plane to Amsterdam....

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