Elizabeth Davies

Protesters condemn Canada's sharia court plan

Elizabeth Davies — 2005-09-09T14:45:00Z

Hundreds of human rights campaigners staged protests yesterday in 11 cities in Europe and North America against Canadian proposals to set up the first court in the Western world to use Islamic law to settle family disputes.

The demonstrations registered outrage over the recommendations of a government report which advocates the introduction of voluntary tribunals based on sharia - the strict Islamic code - into the legal system of Canada's most populous province.

Rights activists, convinced that sharia courts would violate the rights of Ontario's Muslim women and children, fear that the province's premier, Dalton McGuinty, will soon announce his decision to implement the proposals and set an ominous precedent for the rest of the Western world. (...)

- / Independent

Yahoo! 'gave e-mail details that helped jail Chinese writer'

Elizabeth Davies — 2005-09-07T12:15:00Z

Information supplied by the internet giant Yahoo! to Chinese intelligence has resulted in the conviction of a journalist for "divulging state secrets abroad", a respected international press organisation said.

Shi Tao, who worked for the daily business publication Dangdai Shang Bao (Contemporary Business News) until he was arrested in November 2004, was sentenced to 10 years in prison last April, in a case underlining the stringent censorship regime which controls the Chinese media.

He was convicted of sending foreign-based websites the text of a "top secret" government message that had been sent to his newspaper. The text warned Chinese journalists of the dangers of social destabilisation and risks resulting from the return of certain dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. (...)

- / Independent

Beatings and bastinado: life in a Jordanian prison

Elizabeth Davies — 2005-08-12T12:26:00Z

Salah Nasser Salim Ali and Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah, two Yemeni men in US secret detention, spent less than a week in the hands of the Jordanian intelligence services in 2003. But their experiences were so horrific they are in no danger of forgetting them.

For four consecutive days they suffered severe beatings, often on the soles of their feet while suspended upside down with hands and feet tied, a technique known as bastinado. One of the men was threatened with sexual abuse and electric shock torture. "I couldn't bear it any longer ... even if I were an animal I wouldn't put up with it," the former prisoner told Amnesty. (...)

- / Independent

Is the world safer now?

2005-01-28T14:22:00Z

As Iraq prepares for its election, two years after an invasion in the cause of global security, The Independent asks: Is the world safer now?

As war ended, our correspondents examined key questions about Iraq's future. With the elections looming, the updated answers highlight the global impact of the conflict.

- / Independent

Attacks on Iraqi polling stations leave 13 dead

Elizabeth Davies, Patrick Cockburn — 2005-01-28T14:21:00Z

With only three days to go until polling booths open in Iraq's elections, insurgents determined to disrupt the vote carried out a series of attacks on voting stations yesterday, killing at least 12 Iraqis and one US Marine. (...)

- / Independent

Pinochet arrested on human rights charges

Elizabeth Davies — 2004-12-14T13:58:00Z

The former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet was placed under house arrest on human rights charges yesterday after a judge in Santiago ruled he was mentally fit to stand trial.

Judge Juan Guzman formally charged the former president with homicide and kidnapping in one of many cases concerning human rights violations committed during his miltary regime's 17-year rule. (...)

- / Independent

Weapons scientists wanted by the militants

Elizabeth Davies — 2004-09-22T12:01:00Z

The two female prisoners at the centre of the hostage storm are believed to be Dr Rihab Rashid Taha and Huda Salih Mahdi Anmash.

Taha is the scientist believed to have designed Iraq's biological weapons programme. She has become known as "Dr Germ" for helping Iraq use anthrax to make weapons, part of a programme the US claimed was big enough to kill everyone on Earth twice over. (...)

- / Independent

Oil-rich country that leaves its terrorised people in poverty

Elizabeth Davies — 2004-08-26T15:32:00Z

Equatorial Guinea, the tiny West African country nestling between Cameroon and Gabon, became a prime target for mercenary interest in the mid-1990s when oil deposits were discovered off its coastline. (...)

First in and last out of the world's danger zones

Elizabeth Davies — 2004-07-29T13:53:22Z

Medecins sans Frontières (MSF) is the international aid organisation which can always be relied upon to be first in and last out of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

Founded in 1971 by a group of French doctors, including the media-savvy Bernard Kouchner, MSF proclaimed itself to be the world's first non-governmental organisation specialising in emergency medical assistance. The agency has more than 2,500 volunteers worldwide, offices in 18 countries and activities in over 80 countries. (...)

EU threatens Sudan with sanctions over Darfur refugee crisis

Elizabeth Davies — 2004-07-26T14:09:06Z

Citing "masssive human rights violations" - possibly amounting to genocide - European Union ministers meeting in Brussels today are threatening sanctions against Sudan. They hope to push the Khartoum government and rebel groups towards peace and towards improving access for relief groups.

"It's almost certain the international community will take further measures if this situation does not improve," the Dutch Foreign Minister, Ben Bot, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said after meeting his Sudanese counterpart, Mustafa Osman Ismail. (...)

Aids reduces African life expectancy to 33

Elizabeth Davies — 2004-07-16T14:05:46Z

The Aids pandemic is ravaging countries in sub-Saharan Africa, drastically reducing life expectancy in some parts to less than 33 years, a new UN report said yesterday.

The devastating impact of the crisis can be seen most clearly in seven African countries, including Malawi and Mozambique, where babies born in 2002 are not expected to live past 40 years because of the prevalence of HIV. Children in Zambia, where 17 per cent of the population are infected with the virus, are predicted to live just 32 years. The seven countries have, between them, seen an average drop in life expectancy of 13.5 years since 1990, the UN human development report said. (...)

Saudi justice system 'blind to abuse of foreign workers'

Elizabeth Davies — 2004-07-15T17:41:13Z

Migrant workers who move to Saudi Arabia in the hope of a better life and a higher income can instead expect to be faced with torture, unfair trials and forced confessions if they are accused of crimes, according to a scathing Human Rights Watch report released yesterday. (...)