A Mazahua Indian man was released from a prison in central Mexico after spending five years behind bars for crimes he never committed. Hugo Sanchez Ramirez was freed after the Mexican Supreme Court ruled his due process rights had been violated. "Hugo is young and indigenous. Those are the reasons he was attacked by the justice system," Quetzalcoatl Fontanot, spokesperson for the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, told Efe on Tuesday. Sanchez Ramirez's ordeal began in...

The Colombian government and the FARC rebel group are holding preliminary peace talks in Norway that are expected to set the stage for formal talks in Cuba next month. However, there are already signs of some disagreement, with the government saying it will not stop military operations against the rebels during the talks and FARC, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, saying it is willing to discuss the issue any time. Negotiators from the two sides appeared together in public for...

The Communist leader also sought to buy weapons from arms dealers connected with Germany's extreme Right, showing the extent to which he was prepared to collaborate with his ideological enemies to prevent a US invasion on the Caribbean isle. Papers released this week by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - the German foreign intelligence agency - show information gathered by German operatives 50 years ago during the tense days of the Cuban missile crisis. They reveal that Castro personally...

Lebanese shi'ite Hezbollah, an ally with Iran, congratulated on Tuesday Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez for his reelection, positive that his victory is because of the "prestige of the Bolivarian revolution" and refusal of the "intervention and domination" policies. His (President Chávez's) word "is one of the rare ones that advocate the establishment of a fair, balanced world system." In a press release, the shi'ite group added that...

Alfredo Romero, Director of NGO Foro Penal Venezolano, urged Venezuelan reelected President Hugo Chávez to free the 16 political prisoners so as to truly bring about reconciliation or social peace in the country. "Justice is fundamental for every Government that truly believes in reconciliation. For that reason, today, Foro Penal Venezolano, along with some human rights activists, welcomes the statement issued by the president and many ministers who have sustained that a...

Reporters Without Borders joins the Paraguayan Journalists’ Union (SPP) in demanding justice and protection for the journalists who were the target of a bomb attack by two gunmen last week in the northern department of Concepción, and for all other journalists working in high-risk regions like Concepción. Claiming to be members of the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP), the two gunmen left three bombs inside Guyra Campana, a privately-owned radio in the town of Horqueta...

The suspect was arrested in the tourist haven of Palma de Mallorca and his hate-filled personal diary and other papers revealed plans to attack the University of the Balearic Islands, they said. Identified only by the initials JMMS, he was detained on Wednesday just as he received more than 140 kilograms of explosives that he had bought online, police said in a statement. "In his personal diary and other documents seized at his home, the detainee showed his hatred of society,...

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that transparent talks between Tehran and Bones Aires over the 1994 bombing at the Amia Jewish center will reveal the realities and pave the ground for the improvement of the relations between the two counties. "The two (Iranian and Argentine) foreign ministers recently met and agreed to coordinate the rest of the path. We think studying this issue should definitely result in transparency and finding the reality," the...

TEHRAN - Iran and Argentina announced on Thursday that they will continue their consultations until the case of Iran’s alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) building is resolved. The announcement was made in a joint statement issued by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman after they held their first meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday, Reuters reported. The...

The Peruvian government should act to prevent the unlawful use of lethal force by security forces during crowd-control operations, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Ollanta Humala. Fifteen civilians were killed during protests, allegedly by security forces, in the first year of Humala’s presidency. A Human Rights Watch investigation into one of the most recent cases - involving the shooting deaths of four civilians during a protest in Celendín, Cajamarca...