Given the multiple issues facing Pakistanis, the last thing we surely need is for a legislator to defend a heinous crime in the name of tradition or custom.…The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan recorded over 600 cases of 'honour' killings or karo kari last year – just the reported incidents, compiled from reports appearing daily in the media. The actual number may be higher, as not all cases are reported. Is the violence actually rising or is it just that the media is reporting such cases with greater frequency? An analysis by Beena Sarwar, an independent Pakistani journalist and documentary filmmaker in The News, Islamabad.

 The shocking news of the barbaric incident of burying five women alive in the name of tribal honour in the district Nasirabad, Balochistan, and the subsequent defence of the brutal act as the Baloch tradition in the Senate by Israrullah Zehri and Jan Mohammad Jamali, has made many think that with such a misogynist and criminal mindset of our public representatives, what hope do we have to survive as a nation and pull ourselves out of multiple crises, write Dr Farzana Bari and Sarwar Bari  in The News, Islamabad.

The issue of the incident in Jaffarabad district in Balochistan, where five women were reportedly buried alive, has finally created a national furore.…But an obvious attempt seems to be on to bury the truth, alongside the hapless women who met so terrible an end. The interior adviser himself shied away from making any reference to a live burial, focusing instead on 'honour' killings that he emphasized also took place outside Balochistan, says an editorial in The News, Islamabad.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a remote area of Balochistan province, that five women were buried alive, allegedly by the younger brother of Mr. Sadiq Umrani, the provincial minister and a prominent leader of the Pakistan People's Party, the ruling party. However, police have still not arrested the perpetrators after one month of the incident.

SYDNEY: Australia’s defence minister yesterday rejected criticism of the country’s special forces in Afghanistan after they were accused of detaining suspected Taleban militants in dog pens — a report that outraged the Muslim community.

The 1999 NATO-led bombing against Serbia was a humanitarian intervention, not a U.S. and European power grab, writes Paul Hockenos.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws. 

Washington - The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.

One of the most egregious travesties of justice and international law finally came to and end last week as fugitive Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic was finally arrested in Belgrade. He is expected to shortly be sent to the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague. Finally. But we must wonder why it had taken 11 long years to apprehend this notorious Balkan fascist, writes Eric Margolis.

The Hindus of the city are struggling to take complete control of the located historical Manora Island temple dedicated to Hindu god Varun Rai. They want to acquire rights to 11,000 square feet that the temple is built on, instead of the 2,500 square feet that the Pakistan government recently handed over, writes Amar Guriro from Karachi.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has filed a lawsuit in the National Court of Spain, seeking arrest warrants for high-ranking Israeli security officials for alleged war crimes, an independent Palestinian news agency reported on Tuesday. The PCHR filed the suit on behalf of six Palestinians who survived a 2002 bombing of a building in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City in which 15 civilians were killed.

Indonesia's president has acknowledged that his country carried out gross human rights abuses during East Timor's 1999 break for independence, but stopped short of offering a full apology and said no one would be prosecuted. A bilateral truth commission, set up in 2005 to investigate the bloodshed, said Indonesian soldiers, police and civil authorities engaged in an "organized campaign of violence" against independence supporters that included murder, torture and other abuses. The atrocities could be constituted as "gross human rights violations in the form of crimes against humanity," the team wrote in a 300-page report presented yesterday to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos-Horta. Indonesia "bears institutional responsibility," the commission said, and should apologize. "We convey our deep regret over what happened," Yudhoyono said after signing a joint statement accepting the team's findings and expressing "remorse."

Courts in Jeddah should dismiss cases against a Saudi web critic and a Turkish barber charged with “insulting” Islam, an unequivocal violation of freedom of expression protected under international law, Human Rights Watch said today.  Criminalizing speech on grounds that it is insulting might appease some people, but it violates the fundamental human right of free speech. The Saudi government uses these laws primarily to silence its critics. The Saudi man used his website to criticize the religious police while the Turkish barber is accused of cursing the name of God.  On May 5, the prosecution service in Jeddah charged Ra’if Badawi with “setting up an electronic site that insults Islam,” and referred the case to court, asking for a five-year prison sentence and a 3 million riyal (US$800,000) fine.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is shocked to learn that three more women have been buried alive in Balochistan province, a few days after they protested against the live burial of five women taking place in the same province. One prime perpetrator of the murder has not been seen since he was taken into police custody. It is reported that he and seven other men involved are under the protection of the provincial minister Mr. Sadiq Umrani--the brother of the main suspect.