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A mechanic died violently in police custody in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, shortly after he refused to continue paying bribes. The police reportedly started extorting money from the victim after they seized the auto-rickshaw that he operated and the two men he hired to drive it. The man was delivered dead to a hospital shortly after police picked him up, bearing signs of torture. The hospital has refused to release his medical records. The case shows how Bangladeshi police are able to trade on justice, to arrest persons at will, and to kill with impunity. The wife and nephew of the dead man have been threatened repeatedly by the officers involved in the case.

Recently-discovered documents reveal that Colombia's Department of Administrative Security (DAS) has conducted spying operations on European soil, largely in Belgium, and even in the halls of the European Parliament. One victim of the intelligence agency's "Operation Europe" believes there is a Washington connection.

According to documents used in Colombian proceedings, Operation Europe's objective was to "neutralize the influence" of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, the Office of the UNHCR, European NGO workers, and other activists critical of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's human rights record.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/colombia/100630/spy-espionage-eu-colombia-farc

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/sri+lan...

Click here to download:

minsk_pride_100514.flv (14462 KB)

Belarusian police violently dispersed the Slavic Gay Pride 2010 march in Minsk on Saturday. About 30 people taking part in the procession chanted slogans and carried rainbow flags. Riot police attacked the marchers and arrested more than ten people.

http://naviny.by/rubrics/english/2010/05/15/ic_articles_259_167819

Human rights and opposition groups in Belarus said police arrested several activists at their offices in Minsk and cities throughout the country, seizing computers, flash cards, and discs, Charter 97 and Radio Svaboda reported on Tuesday.

Police raided the offices of the Speak the Truth campaign in Minsk, two NGOs in Mogilev, the Social Democratic Party in Brest, and the homes of opposition activists and independent journalists in Minsk, Hrodna, Brest, Slonim, and Babruysk.

Vladimir Neklyayev, leader of the Speak the Truth campaign, was arrested together with around 20 campaign members in the group's offices in Minsk. The police raid also targeted the oldest opposition party in Belarus, the United Civil Party.

More information:

http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2010/5/18/29082/
http://naviny.by/rubrics/english/2010/05/18/ic_articles_259_167856

An Israeli journalist has been held secretly under house arrest for months amid allegations she obtained and leaked classified military information to an Israeli newspaper. Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service has banned news media from mentioning the case or identifying the reporter, Anat Kam, 23, who former colleagues say worked for the Israeli news site Walla! until her arrest in December 2009.

Prosecutors claim she copied at least two classified military documents during her mandatory army service years earlier. These two documents are believed to have inspired a 2008 investigation by Haaretz reporter Uri Blau into how the Israeli military has repeatedly violated a 2006 ruling by the High Court of Justice against "targeted assassinations," predominantly those in which a non-combatant was killed.

The Israeli newspaper, Ma'ariv, has published ambiguous references to the case. One came in a January op-ed about a non-existent country that secretly jails journalists, asking its confused subscribers whether that country should still be considered a democracy. Cracks in the gag order's effectiveness began to appear this spring, when Israeli journalists leaked the news to bloggers.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=272097

Opponents of same-sex marriage think gays and lesbians want to upend the "sanctity" of the institution. A straight couple, Brian Feldman and Hannah Miller, who were complete strangers to each other, were married last Friday in Orlando, Florida. Feldman put out a call to any ladies who wanted to take part in the project on Facebook, "Brian Feldman Marries Anybody."

Three women showed up, and Feldman spun a water bottle to decide with whom to enter into holy matrimony. A lesbian couple attempted to get a marriage license at the same court an hour before but was denied. When Miller was congratulated on her nuptials, she replied, "I think you should be shaming me. This is a disgusting thing I have to do. It's terrible -- no offense to Brian."

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/02/complete_strangers_married_in.php

We appeal to the Finnish authorities to grant asylum to the Chechen couple, Malik and Khadizhat Gataev. They were arrested in Finland, pending deportation to Lithuania.

The couple ran an orphanage in Kaunas, but were arrested by state security in October 2008. Since then, they have been rollercoastered by the Lithuanian justice system.

Deporting the Gataevs to Lithuania must not happen, since there are no guarantees that they would not be then deported to the inhumane conditions in their homeland, Chechnya.

Read more about the case:

“Angel of Grozny” arrested in Lithuania
Finrosforum, 21 October 2008
http://www.finrosforum.fi/?p=1365

Angel of Grozny, Devils of Lithuania
Finrosforum, 11 March 2009
http://www.finrosforum.fi/?p=1976

Sign the Appeal: http://www.adressit.com/gatajev