In an interview for the BBC during an emergency tour of the Middle East earlier this month, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "Amid the opportunity for countries like Tunisia and Egypt, there is a legitimate fear that the Middle East peace process will lose...
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February 28, 2011
On Feb. 3, Haiti’s Electoral Council announced in a decision signed by only four of eight council members, and without releasing any vote count, that Mirlande Manigat and Michel Martelly would participate in a “run-off” on March 20, although Haitian law requires that a...
February 23, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan – UN Dispatch received confirmation late yesterday that the Afghan government has scrapped its plan to take over shelters for abused women and will work with women’s groups to improve shelter conditions. The move came after two weeks of intense activism...
February 23, 2011
Donald Moncayo almost cried when he heard that a judge in his town of Lago Agrio had just ordered U.S. oil giant Chevron to pay $9 billion to clean up decades of petro-contamination in the Amazon jungle of northeast Ecuador. It was one of the largest environmental-damage...
February 22, 2011
RUMIPAMBA, Ecuador — She has no legal training, and doesn't speak the Spanish that dominates government in Quito but indigenous villager Maria Aguinda helped bring a landmark judgment against US oil giant Chevron for polluting the rain forest she calls home.
The...
February 22, 2011
Oil companies from Chevron Corp. to BP Plc are selling more refineries than at any time in history even as a rebound in demand for gasoline and diesel pushes profits from running the plants to the highest level since 2007.
A glut of refineries put up for sale by...
February 21, 2011
RAMALLAH, 18 February 2011 (IRIN) - Demolition of livelihood structures and drought are hitting already impoverished Palestinian communities living in Area C of the West Bank hard this year, according to UN agencies and international aid organizations working in the...
February 18, 2011
“I’m voting for change,” he said.
Mr. Kibwami, along with many others here in Uganda’s capital, voted for the leading opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, who is trying to unseat President Yoweri Museveni, in power for the past 25 years.
But while the...
February 18, 2011
KAMPALA, Uganda — Fresh from fighting in the bush, Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni, a former rebel commander, electrified the crowd at his inaugural address in 1986 when he declared that “the problems of Africa, and Uganda in particular, are caused by leaders who...
February 17, 2011
QUITO, Ecuador -- An Ecuadorean judge ruled Monday in an epic environmental case that Chevron Corp. was responsible for oil drilling contamination in a wide swath of Ecuador's northern jungle and ordered the oil giant to pay $8.6 billion in damages and cleanup costs.
The amount was far...
February 14, 2011
By Chip Pitts, Lecturer in Law, Stanford Law School and Oxford University; former Chair, Amnesty International USA
After an eighteen-year, multinational court battle, Chevron was found guilty today in an Ecuadorian court and fined $8 billion for pollution...
February 14, 2011
(New York) - Iranian security forces should stop using teargas and batons to disperse peaceful crowds gathered in support of the popular movements in Egypt and Tunisia, Human Rights Watch said today.
The authorities should also release opposition leaders and...
February 14, 2011
BANGKOK, 14 February 2011 (IRIN) - Thousands of residents displaced by recent fighting along the Thai-Cambodian border have begun returning homes, aid officials say.
"Quite a large number, if not all, have returned," Sawanit Kongsiri, assistant secretary-general of the Thai Red Cross...
February 14, 2011
(New York) - An Afghan government move to take over the operations of women's shelters threatens the safety of women and girls in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the government to support, rather than control, the work of shelter...
February 13, 2011
Critics said the draft regulation by the Ministry of Justice would hurt the limited progress made on women's rights since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, and appeared to be an overture to the Islamist insurgents waging war against NATO and Afghan forces.
The...
February 10, 2011
Nablus Gov. Jibreen Al-Bakri said in a press statement that Israel informed the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it will remove the Hewara and Beit Foureek checkpoints on early on Thursday.
Al-Bakri added that the two checkpoints are located to the south and east...
February 10, 2011
Government sources acknowledged that King Abdullah has approved requests by at least a dozen Fatah and PA leaders for Jordanian citizenship. They said the Palestinians sought to ensure that they and their families could enter and leave Jordan at any time.
"The...
February 10, 2011
(CNN) -- Iranian authorities have blocked reformist websites and detained several opposition supporters and activists, opposition website Saham News reported Thursday.
The arrests come days after Iran's two leading opposition figures called for a rally next Monday...
February 10, 2011
Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly,
Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces;
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP;
Deputy President of the Republic,
Honourable Kgalema Motlanthe;
...
February 10, 2011
(Kampala) - Ugandan police and Resident District Commissioners are intimidating civil society activists seeking to expose and condemn allegations of government corruption, Human Rights Watch said today.
Outside Kampala, some officials are also intimidating...
February 10, 2011