In yet another resounding slap in the face to the Bush administration on its policies during the so-called war on terror, the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday ruled 5-4 that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to challenge their detention in civilian courts. “We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege,” […]
Today the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight released the culmination of ten hearings all based on global views of the US. The report, titled "The Decline in America's Reputation: Why?” explores this important issue, thoroughly-documented with testimony from some of the country's brightest public opinion and regional experts. The report identifies […]
Today marks the 2008 World Day Against Child Labour, this years theme is: ‘Education: The right response to child labour’. This year the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has established the campaign to tackle the right to education for all children to brake the chain of child labour that envelops […]
The ICC's first trial, against Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, will be delayed. Lubanga, a leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, is accused of command responsibility for hundreds of civilian deaths and the large-scale recruitment or impression into service of child soldiers. Critical case documents are available here, though the judges’ written explanation of […]
German doll maker Marcel Offermann is used to seizing the day. He has made dolls of newsmakers like Pope Benedict, the Dalai Lama and Princess Diana. So it follows that he would make a Barack Obama doll. Offermann was interviewd on NPR's Marketplace about the doll which looks more like a boy than a man. […]
A Pew Center report entitled "Media Pivot to November, Iraq Debate' outlined trends in media coverage during the week of May 26-June 1, the period just before Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on June 3. As his victory appeared increasingly inevitable, Obama featured in nearly 66 percent of campaign-related news stories, against 45 […]
The leading scientists of 13 nations yesterday called for significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The science academies of the G8 plus those of Brazil, Mexico, India, China and South Africa issued a joint statement on "Climate Change Adaptation and the Transition to a Low Carbon Society." See this from Reuters. The statement targets the […]
BELGRADE (AFP) ‚ Stojan Zupljanin, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in connection with atrocities against Muslims and Croats during the Bosnian war, has been arrested near Belgrade, officials said Wednesday.He was among the most-wanted Serbs indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia — alongside Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic […]
I have to take a moment to point out how much I disagree with the Slate article by Christopher Hitchens on former South African President Nelson Mandela and Zimbabwe. Hitchens attacks President Mandela for not speaking out on Zimbabwe: "By his silence about what is happening in Zimbabwe, Mandela is making himself complicit in the […]
The website for Hezbollah's Al Manar TV reported today that the Iranian Committee for the Reconstruction of Lebanon (ICRL) completed repaving the al-Ghajar Bridge in south Lebanon. The bridge, destroyed during the July War of 2006, spans the Hasbani River near the border town of al-Ghajar. Half of the town lies in Lebanese territory, while […]
It pains me to report on this, but I feel it is important to capture the wide variety of reactions to an important moment in American history. Last week, Die Tageszeitung, a left-leaning German newspaper, ran the following headline when Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, that when translated into English, reads: “Uncle Barack's Cabin.” It has caused an […]
President Bush began a five-country European tour on Monday, his last trip to Europe as President. The pre-take-off remarks he made to the Washington press corps on what he hopes to acheive there can be read here and watched here. Bush kicked off the trip with an annual European Council summit in Slovenia. While the subject of the […]
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