Pakistan’s internal political atmosphere was tense Tuesday as tens of thousands gathered outside Parliament in the capital city of Islamabad to join a popular protest against corruption in government, calling for ‘revolution’ if their demands for a peaceful transition of power were not followed.

A conflation of anti-corruption sentiment and anger over internal terrorist attacks and ongoing violence in the tribal areas of western Pakistan–including ongoing US drone strikes that many blame, at least in part, …

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A Global NRA: Our Government Is the Largest Federally Licensed Weapons Dealer on the Planet

Given these last weeks, who doesn’t know what an AR-15 is? Who hasn’t seen the mind-boggling stats on the way assault rifles have flooded this country, or tabulations of accumulating Newtown-style mass killings, or noted that there are barely more gas stations nationwide than federally licensed firearms dealers, or heard the renewed debates over the Second Amendment, …

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Aaron Swartz, a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped to develop a computer code that provided a format for delivering regularly changing Web content and in later life became an unwavering crusader to make that information free of charge, died in New York on Friday, a family member said.

Mr. Swartz was 26, and his death was due to suicide. His body was found by his girlfriend in his apartment in New York, his uncle, …

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Thousands of Sunni Iraqis have taken to the streets of Baghdad and other parts of the country to decry the alleged targeting of their minority, in rallies hardening opposition to the country’s Shia leader.

Counter-demonstrations were held on Friday in predominantly Shia areas of southern Iraq calling for authorities to resist demands to reform anti-terror laws or consider a wide-ranging prisoner release, both key demands in majority-Sunni areas.

The protests have worsened a political crisis, pitting Prime …

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A 2010 Human Rights Watch report, “As If I Am Not Human,” based on extensive interviews with domestic workers in Saudi Arabia as well as in their home countries, described conditions amounting to modern-day slavery:

Most domestic workers reported working 15-20 hours a day, typically with one hour of rest or no rest at all. None of the interviewees had a day off or paid leave. Domestic workers reported having …

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Erika Andiola, a well-known immigrant rights leader, watched Thursday night as agents handcuffed and took away her mother and adult brother from their Phoenix home–arrests that sparked swift outrage among activists like her across the nation.

Organizations released scores of statements condemning the action. Federal officials were bombarded with petitions and calls for the release of Andiola’s mother, Maria Arreola, and brother, Heriberto Andiola Arreola. Both are suspected of being in the country illegally.

By Friday morning …

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NEW DELHI -From Africa’s crowded AIDS clinics to the malarial jungles of Southeast Asia, the lives of millions of ill people in the developing world are hanging in the balance ahead of a legal ruling that will determine whether India’s drug companies can continue to provide cheap versions of many life-saving medicines.

The case — involving Swiss drug maker Novartis AG’s cancer drug Glivec — pits aid groups that argue India plays a vital role as …

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Is temporarily slowing down a website a legal form of protest? Current US law says it isn’t, but hacktivists want the White House to make changes that would force the government to reconsider their witch-hunt against alleged computer criminals.

In the latest WhiteHouse.gov petition to go viral, the Obama administration is asked to make a method of momentarily crippling a website comparable to real word demonstrations, essentially allowing for a whole new legal form of online …

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While the saga of who will attend tomorrow’s meeting between Harper government representatives and First Nations leaders continues, we can be certain that justice will be absent.

For obvious reasons, there will be no justice for the Inuit, as they will not be represented. Nor will there be any justice for the Métis and non-status Indians, who this week won a court battle to have the federal government recognize its obligations toward them, because they aren’t …

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A proposed international treaty to address the damaging effects of mercury should include specific provisions to protect the health of children and other vulnerable populations, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments are to meet in Geneva beginning January 13, 2013, for a fifth and final round of talks for the treaty. Mercury is a toxic metal that attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.

So far, the draft treaty has been focused …

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