The remaining three members of the Christian Peacemakers Team ("CPT") who had been kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq are now free. As reported here, they were rescued by U.S. and British troops without firing a shot. The CPT's response? No mention of the efforts by the U.S. and British troops to free their colleagues. No word of...
The House of Lords has upheld the decision of a British high school to prohibit one of its students from wearing a head-to-toe jilbab dress to school. The full text of the House of Lords decision in R v. Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School is here. The House of Lords was interpreting Protocol 1 to the European Convention...
The Santiago Times reports that a Chilean judge has indicted 13 retired army officers, including one general, on murder charges in connection with the notorious 1973 "Caravan of Death," in which 75 jailed dissidents — many of whom had voluntarily turned themelves in — were killed by a gang of soldiers that roamed the country by helicopter in the weeks...
According to the Times (UK) Online, the Vatican sponsored a conference last weekend aimed at rehabilitating the Crusades as wars fought with the "noble aim" of reclaiming the Holy Land for Christianity: At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian, recalled that the Crusades were “a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian...
Time for more self promotion...
The Washington Post had a confusing piece this weekend about the State Department's efforts to block compensation claims of the 52 American hostages held by Iran. The story attempts to paint a picture of the Bush Administration in general, and the State Department in particular, displaying callous disregard for the claims of the hostages against Iran. Quoting Rep. Brad Sherman,...
On a much lighter note, the LA Times has an update on just one of many sources of tension in the China-Taiwan relationship: pandas. China has been offering the pandas as a goodwill gift to Taiwan, but Taiwan's pro-independence government won't take them, suggesting an acceptance would be a "Trojan Horse" reducing Taiwan's psychological defenses. China has been playing up...
According to a recent report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of persons seeking asylum in the industrialized countries has fallen by 50% since 2000, reaching their lowest level in nearly two decades. In most individual countries, the 2005 total was the lowest in many years. The number of persons who sought asylum in Germany was the...
A Spanish Judge, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has indicted 32 suspected Islamic militants for conspiring to drive a truck carrying 1,100lbs of explosives into the National Court in Madrid. The judge said that the attack could have killed more than 900 people, although he he did not release a date for the planned attack and no explosives have ever been found....
A military jury today found SSgt Michael Smith guilty of six out of 12 counts: two counts of maltreatment, one count of conspiracy to make detainees urinate and defecate on themselves, dereliction of duty, assault and an indecent act. Full information is at the Human Rights First Trial Blog. Sentencing to follow. This is an important act of accountability in the grim...
Here are some of the slogans that were on display during the French student revolts of 1968: Nous ne voulons pas d'un monde où la certitude de ne pas mourir de faim s'échange contre le risque de mourir d'ennui. (We want nothing of a world in which the certainty of not dying from hunger comes in...
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs had a very brief press conference in Algeria yesterday where he endorsed Algeria's Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation (for a brief summary see here). The Charter was suspiciously but overwhelmingly endorsed by a referendum last year and ends judicial proceedings against alleged extremist Islamic terrorists. Of course, it...
