(Nairobi) – Credible sources in Sudan have reported that government doctors amputated a man’s right hand and left foot by court order in Khartoum on February 14, 2013, in violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishments, four human rights groups said today.

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), Human Rights Watch, REDRESS and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) called on Sudanese leaders and international actors to condemn …

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Activist Irom Sharmila, a woman from India’s north-east who has been force-fed for the past 12 years, was flown to Delhi so that a judge could charge her with trying to commit suicide. The 40-year-old declined to play along.

“I do not want to commit suicide. Mine is only a non-violent protest,” the activist told the judge, according to the Press Trust of India. “It is my demand to live as a human being. I …

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Syrian rebels battling troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad overran al-Raqqa after days of fierce fighting, and were now in “near-total control” of the northern city, activists said.

The fall of Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River, on Monday is a significant development in the two-year-old revolt against Assad. The rebels do not claim to hold any other provincial capitals.

Residents in Raqqa destroyed a statue of late President Hafez al-Assad (Bashar’s father), according to amateur video …

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Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week underscores yet again the United States’s willingness to ignore the darker side of the medieval monarchy.

A few years before Kerry, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton munched on lamb and rice with King Abdullah. Back in 2005, President Bush hosted the Saudi monarch at his Crawford ranch. (And then there was President Obama’s supposed kow-towing before Abdullah, which became a rightwing meme.)

This constant show of …

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Hugo Chávez has developed a severe new respiratory infection that has left the president’s health in a very delicate condition, the Venezuelan government has announced.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Caracas at the weekend demanding the government “tell the truth” about the president’s condition. Protesters accused officials of keeping from the public a full account of Chávez’s failing health.

Chávez’s breathing problems have worsened and he is suffering from a new, severe respiratory infection …

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The U.N. human rights advocate who monitors counterterrorism has joined the chorus of voices demanding the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 6,000 report on the CIA’s rendition program. British attorney Ben Emmerson Q.C. delivered a report to the Human Rights Council Tuesday, demanding both the British and American governments release classified documents about the the kidnapping and torture of terror suspects, known to have been aided by 54 governments worldwide.

“The special rapporteur calls on …

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WASHINGTON — House Republicans are proposing a short-term budget that would ease the impact of sequestration on defense, veterans, immigration and law enforcement, while allowing the sequester’s blunt cuts to hit elsewhere.

The military would not be protected from all sequestration’s effects, but the new legislation would update the spending plans for the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, giving priority to programs that are more important today than they were a year …

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The last time the nation’s tax code was overhauled, in 1986, Congress tried to end a big corporate giveaway.

But this valuable perk — the ability to finance a variety of business projects cheaply with bonds that are exempt from federal taxes — has not only endured, it has grown, in what amounts to a stealth subsidy for private enterprise.

A winery in North Carolina, a golf resort in Puerto Rico and a Corvette museum in …

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We cannot intimidate others into behaving well when we ourselves are misbehaving. Yet that is precisely what nations armed with nuclear weapons hope to do by censuring North Korea for its nuclear tests and sounding alarm bells over Iran’s pursuit of enriched uranium. According to their logic, a select few nations can ensure the security of all by having the capacity to destroy all.As an Oslo conference on nuclear weapons starts, we should not accept …

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LOS ANGELES — On Tuesday, voters in Los Angeles will go to the polls for a mayoral primary. But much of the attention will also be on the three races for the school board, a battle that involves the mayor, the teachers’ union and a host of advocates from across the country — including New York City’s billionaire mayor — who have poured millions of dollars into the races.

Steve Zimmer, an incumbent and Ms. …

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