Amnesty Internation Human Rights Roundup

Economic, Food Crises Worsen Human Rights Abuses Voice of America News — Amnesty International has released its annual report on the state of the world's human rights and it warns the global economic and food crises are contributing to billions of people suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity. Erwin van der Borght, director of amnesty's Africa Program, says when the food crisis began last year it set the stage for rights abuses. click to read complete article

Amnesty raps Medvedev on Russia rights violations Washington Post — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has failed to deliver on promises to improve human rights and some violations have worsened since he took office last year, Amnesty International said Thursday. Medvedev, a 43-year-old former lawyer, has scolded officials for breaching human rights, vowed to battle corruption and end what he terms legal nihilism in the court system. click to read complete article

Britain has mixed human rights record, says Amnesty The Hindu — Amnesty International has criticised Britain for its "mixed record" on human rights and called for an inquiry into the UK government's alleged inaction in stopping the torture of a Guantanamo detainee who returned here recently. The government had a "mixed record" on human rights, said Kate Allen, British director of Amnesty. click to read complete article

Nuclear North Korea

Gates draws the line on North Korea's nuclear program: No proliferation L.A. Times — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates promised today to hold North Korea accountable for selling or transferring nuclear material outside its borders, providing the first clear expression of the Obama administration's thinking on a vexing foreign policy challenge. A succession of U.S. presidents have tried to persuade the reclusive government to give up its nuclear arms, and Gates made it clear that President Obama was open to using diplomacy to end the threat. click to read complete article

Gates: China, U.S. need to cooperate wherever possible Xinhua — It is essential for the United States and China to find opportunities to cooperate in every possible area, including maintaining a defense relationship, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said here on Saturday. Speaking at the 2009 Asian security summit, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, Gates said that the United States is working with China on common challenges, from economic matters to security issues such as regional areas of tension, counter terrorism, non-proliferation, energy security, piracy and disaster relief. click to read complete article

Are British expats in Korea anxious? BBC — North Korea's decision to stage a nuclear test in direct contravention of an international ban has been widely condemned and led to fears of conflict in south-east Asia. But are Britons living in the region fearful? If the Scottish government was to begin assembling a nuclear arsenal and make threatening noises towards its neighbours, you might expect mass panic across the rest of the UK. click to read complete article

Green Glowing Monkeys!

Monkeys' genes altered for study of diseases Los Angeles Times — Scientists have created the first genetically modified monkeys that can pass their new genetic attributes to their offspring, a development designed to give researchers new tools for studying human disease, but one that raises a host of thorny ethical questions. In this case, the Japanese researchers added genes that caused the animals to glow green under a fluorescent light and beget offspring with the same spooky ability. They hope to use the technique to produce animals with Parkinson's, Huntington's and other diseases. click to read complete article

Green-glowing monkeys have green-glowing babies Reuters — Japanese researchers have genetically engineered monkeys whose hair roots, skin and blood glow green under a special light, and who have passed on their traits to their offspring, the first time this has been achieved in a primate. They spliced a jellyfish gene into common marmosets, and said on Wednesday they hope to use their colony of glowing animals to study human Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. click to read complete article

Glowing monkeys spark genetic engineering debate London Daily Mail — The creation of monkeys that 'glow in the dark' has sparked an ethical storm. The designer marmosets carry a gene that causes their skin, hair roots and blood to glow green under ultraviolet light. What makes this a world first is that scientists were able to show that the monkeys can pass on the gene to other generations. click to read complete article

California Supreme Court Upholds Prop. 8

California high court upholds Prop. 8 L.A. Times — The California Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8 and existing same-sex marriages left in place all rights for California's gays and lesbians except access to the label "marriage," but it provided little protection from future ballot measures that could cost gays and other minorities more rights, lawyers and scholars said Tuesday. In a 6-1 ruling, the court said the November ballot measure that restored a ban on same-sex marriage was a limited constitutional amendment, not a wholesale revision that would have required a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to be placed before voters. click to read complete article

Protests in S. California Over Gay Marriage Ban Fox News — More than 1,500 protesters are gathered at a rally in West Hollywood, expressing their opposition to the California Supreme Court's decision to uphold the state's gay marriage ban. Police said Tuesday that the rally has been peaceful, with no arrests reported. Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore estimated the crowd could be up to 2,000 people. click to read complete article

California voters likely to revisit same-sex marriage next year San Francisco Chronicle — The next same-sex marriage battle in California will be fought over a referendum aimed at the November 2010 ballot that is likely to include door-to-door campaigning in Bible-belt areas of the state that backed Proposition 8. The battlegrounds will not be in San Francisco or West Hollywood but in places like Fresno, the geographic center of California where proponents of same-sex marriage will hold their first high-profile event Saturday. click to read complete article

Obama Picks Sotomayer for Supreme Court

Supreme Court nominee's path looks clear San Francisco Chronicle — Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, appears headed for a relatively smooth confirmation, to the dismay of conservatives who see her selection as a bold move to shift the court to the left, especially on business issues. Democrats hold an overwhelming 57-vote Senate majority and Republicans denounced filibusters to block former President George W. Bush's judicial nominations. Republicans were adamant about upholding the tradition of straight up-or-down votes on Supreme Court nominees. click to read complete article

Sotomayor’s Rulings Are Exhaustive but Often Narrow New York Times — Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s judicial opinions are marked by diligence, depth and unflashy competence. If they are not always a pleasure to read, they are usually models of modern judicial craftsmanship, which prizes careful attention to the facts in the record and a methodical application of layers of legal principles. Judge Sotomayor, whom President Obama announced Tuesday as his choice for the Supreme Court, has issued no major decisions concerning abortion, the death penalty, gay rights or national security. In cases involving criminal defendants, employment discrimination and free speech, her rulings are more liberal than not. click to read complete article

Sotomayor Nomination Renews Roe V. Wade Debate CBS News — For over three decades, the topic that matters the most during a Senate confirmation hearing for an aspiring member of the U.S. Supreme Court has remained the same: abortion. Until the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, abortion had been a matter of state law, with some states broadly permitting abortions, and others imposing strict limits on the procedure. A challenge to a Texas law, originally enacted in 1854, led to the Supreme Court's famous 7-2 ruling that described a constitutional "right of privacy" that encompassed a woman's right to "an abortion free of interference by the state." click to read complete article

North Korea Tests Nuclear Weapon

North Korea conducts nuclear test BBC — North Korea says it has staged a "successful" underground nuclear test, prompting international condemnation. The state says it was more powerful than the previous one in October 2006. click to read complete article

Asian Stocks Decline After North Korea Conducts Nuclear Test Bloomberg — Most Asian stocks rose as gains in metal prices boosted mining companies and health-care stocks rallied. South Korean shares fell after North Korea conducted a nuclear test. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, added 1.2 percent in Sydney after a measure of metals traded in London climbed the most in two weeks on May 22. Shionogi & Co. jumped 5.7 percent, pacing advances by health-care stocks, after the Nikkei newspaper reported the company aims to sell a new drug for influenza as early as 2010. LG Electronics Inc., the world’s third-largest maker of mobile phones, sank as much as 6.3 percent in Seoul after what North Korea described as a “successful” underground nuclear test today. click to read complete article

Yen, Dollar Strengthen on Report North Korea Held Nuclear Test Bloomberg — The yen and the dollar rose against the euro after Yonhap News reported that North Korea held a nuclear test today, spurring demand for the relative safety of the Japanese and U.S. currencies. The yen advanced to 132.09 per euro as of 11:51 a.m. in Tokyo from 132.67 in New York last week. The dollar climbed to $1.3979 versus the euro from $1.3998. The yen traded at 94.50 per dollar, from 94.78. click to read complete article

Cheney, Obama, Torture

Obama vs. Cheney on terror Seattle Times — After listening to both Barack Obama and Dick Cheney, it's a slam dunk knowing who has the right idea for protecting America ["President, Cheney duel over how to fight terror," page one, May 22]. We had a team of seasoned national-security professionals who knew although it would be ugly, we needed to do whatever was necessary to protect America from al-Qaida. This includes waterboarding if necessary. We are in a war, not a game of powder-puff football as the ACLU and leftists believe. click to read complete article

Obama, Cheney Lay Out Views On Post-9/11 Policies U.S. News and World Report — Most national media outlets are combining their coverage of yesterday's speeches by President Obama and Dick Cheney into a single story, casting the speeches as a showdown of sorts between Obama and the former vice president. All three network broadcasts led with the story, devoting a combined total of 28 minutes and 35 seconds to the speeches. NBC Nightly News called the dueling speeches "political theater" and "a virtual debate," while ABC World News referred to an "extraordinary and important debate." The CBS Evening News, meanwhile, reported, "We have never seen anything quite like this." Similarly, the Washington Post headlines its front-page story "In Dueling Speeches, A National Security Debate," and calls the speeches "the national security debate" the country "never had during last year's campaign. ... Presidential scholars could not recall another moment when consecutive administrations intersected so early and in such a public way." Fox News' Special Report called the dueling speeches "unprecedented at this or any other time of war." click to read complete article

Obama and Cheney in a duel for hearts and minds LA Times — It was an unusual showdown pitting present and former leaders, live on national television, with President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney dueling in back-to-back speeches Thursday over how to best protect the nation against terrorism. Obama pressed his case for closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and for discarding interrogation techniques he described as brutal, while Cheney warned that doing so would endanger the country. click to read complete article