Human rights and civil liberties news and stories by mail.com

Human rights and civil liberties

Obama offers faith groups new birth control rule
Facing a wave of lawsuits over what government can tell religious groups to do, the Obama administration is proposing a compromise for faith-based ...
Chicago takes leading role in national gun debate
They are counting the dead from gunfire again in Chicago, a city awash in weapons despite having one of the strictest gun-control ordinances in the ...
Ed Koch, New York's feisty mayor, dies at 88
When Ed Koch was mayor, it seemed as if all of New York was being run by a deli counterman. Koch was funny, irritable, opinionated, often rude and ...
Milan court convicts 3 Americans in CIA kidnapping
A Milan appeals court on Friday vacated acquittals for a former CIA station chief and two other Americans, and instead convicted them in the 2003 ...
Arabs, Tuaregs in Mali face hostility amid war
Bawba Mint Baba Ahmed's dress-making teacher singled her out in front of the class, telling her: "You look like a rebel." Others threatened to slit ...
Mali jihadists in custody say tortured by military
Three suspected jihadists arrested in the days since the liberation of Timbuktu said Friday that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method ...
Hawaii lawmakers propose shielding celeb privacy
More than two-thirds of Hawaii's state senators have signed onto a bill to protect celebrities from paparazzi, giving them power to sue over unwanted ...
International literary festival opens in Myanmar
The latest first for fast-reforming Myanmar — its first international literary festival — is putting the spotlight on dozens of the country's authors, ...
Gay-rights backers await for their Jackie Robinson
Brendon Ayanbadejo has heard from many players who applaud his support of gay marriage — some of them teammates, others from the opposing side of the ...
Hillary Clinton takes a rest, how weird is that?
Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan for 2013 was simple. She'd embark on an epic swansong around the world as secretary of state, a dizzying itinerary of ...
Mexico vigilantes bring 'charges' against 53
Vigilantes who have taken up arms against drug cartel violence and common crime in southern Mexico announced Thursday they will bring charges ranging ...
Ark. Senate passes measure to ban most abortions
The Arkansas Senate voted Thursday to prohibit most abortions if a heartbeat is detected, ignoring warnings from opponents that banning the procedure ...
Biden: Gun curbs can't end killings but can help
Curbing guns can't ensure an end to mass slayings like December's killings of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn., but it will reduce firearm deaths, ...
Union agrees to back off Wal-Mart protests
Labor groups say they will end their picketing at Wal-Mart stores for at least 60 days as part of a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board
Evangelical churches refine message on gay issues
The Rev. Robert Jeffress has changed the way he talks about homosexuality from the pulpit. The pastor of the 11,000-member First Baptist Dallas hasn't ...
Arizona lawmakers struggle to stay on priorities
One Republican proposal would ban state enforcement of federal gun laws. Another would require that hospitals check the citizenship of anyone treated ...
Furor over proposed shift in Scouts no-gays policy
The Boy Scouts of America faces intensifying criticism from the left and right over a proposal to move away from a mandatory no-gays membership policy ...
49ers' Culliver apologizes for anti-gay remarks
San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver apologized Thursday for anti-gay comments he made to a comedian during Super Bowl media day, saying ...
Sept. 11 judge rules on censor but little else
The second round of pretrial hearings in the Sept. 11 case sputtered to a close Thursday with the judge ordering the government to remove censorship ...
FACT CHECK: Gun-control claims miss target
The intensifying gun-control debate has given rise to sloppy claims on both sides. Here's a sampling, with the first two examples from the Senate ...
Somali govt charges woman who says she was raped
The Somali government has charged a woman who has said she was raped by security forces, according to an international human rights group, which says ...
French gay marriage plans stir parenthood debate
The French are all for sex and all for family — so long as you're having sex to create one. Anything dealing with assisted reproduction makes a ...
Conn. town residents urge stricter gun control
One after another, Newtown residents stepped to the microphone and urged Connecticut lawmakers to stop another tragedy like the deadly shooting at ...
Vietnam deports US activist held for 9 months
A Vietnamese-American accused of conspiring to overthrow Vietnam's communist government smiled broadly as he reunited with his family after he was ...