Stories related to: Amnesty International

China's 470 executions in 2007 make it the world's leader, according to Amnesty International's annual report on the worldwide state of capital punishment. But even that number is likely low, the group says, with the real number probably in the thousands. "China gets the 'gold medal' for global executions," Amnesty's British director told the BBC. More »

The Zimbabwe opposition is claiming victory in national elections to unseat long-time leader Robert Mugabe—but government authorities quickly warned that premature pronouncements would be dealt with harshly. "It is called a coup d'etat and we all know how coups are handled," warned a government spokesman. Authorities plan to announce official results today. President Mugabe faced the most formidable opposition in his 28-year reign in yesterday's elections. More »

Robert Mugabe's government is harassing and intimidating opposition groups in the run-up to Zimbabwe's Saturday elections, human-rights organizations charge. Three members of an opposition party were forced by intelligence officers to take down their election posters and eat them, complains Amnesty International. The US has also raised concerns about the fairness of the upcoming vote, the Guardian reports. More »

A Yemeni man was held by the US in secret prisons for nearly three years and subjected to torture after his capture in Iraq, a human rights group has charged in a condemnation of America's "cruel" defiance of international law. The man, Khaled al-Maqtari, was held in Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, secret jails in Afghanistan, and a CIA prison in an unknown location, where he was hung upside down by a chain, beaten and drenched with icy water, Reuters reports. More »

The State Department has taken China off its list of the world's 10 worst human rights abusers, the New York Time s reports. China's human rights record "remained poor," the department's annual report said, with abuses including "extrajudicial killings, torture, and coerced confessions of prisoners." Officials declined to explain why the country was dropped from the list or whether it had anything to do with the Beijing Olympics. More »

The US, along with China, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Israel, is listed in an official Canadian foreign ministry document of countries where prisoners are at risk of torture, the BBC reports. The "torture awareness" training manual classifies as torture some US interrogation techniques, including forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation. More »

At-home female entrepreneurs are ditching Mary Kay for Tasers, but they're keeping the pink. Taser International is marketing its user-friendly C2 "personal protector" to the public, and women with an interest in self-defense are holding independent Taser parties in states where the stun gun is legal. "It's a girl power kind of thing," said one woman. Critics, however, aren't so sure. More »

Four British residents imprisoned for years at Guantanamo Bay will be released, the BBC reports. US and UK officials involved in negotiations since August came to a compromise on the fates of five men the US claimed were connected to al-Qaeda. Of the four released, three will return to the UK, while the fourth will be sent to Saudi Arabia. More »

Despite advocates' claims, lethal injection isn’t humane or painless, and it should be stopped in the US, Amnesty International asserts in a new report. Since the practice was instituted in 37 states in 2000, at least nine lethal injections have been bungled, including one in which the condemned took 69 minutes to die, the Guardian reports. More »

The Vatican is calling on Catholics to stop contributing to Amnesty International, a reaction to the human rights group's new stance on abortion. "AI has betrayed its mission," a prominent cardinal said this week, referring to the April announcement that the organization supports access to abortion services in cases involving rape, incest, and risk to the mother's life or health. More »

Six prominent human rights groups want the US to disclose the whereabouts of 39 terrorism suspects, or "ghost prisoners," believed to have been in government custody. The organizations released a report today charging that children as young as 7 have been detained, invoking the loaded term "disappeared," and urging the US to abandon the use of secret prisons. More »

Amnesty International accuses Sudan of violating the UN arms embargo with the help of  Security Council members Russia and China. The human rights group claims the Khartoum government is using planes disguised as all-white UN aircraft to move military equipment into the embattled region where 200,000 people have already died. More »