Word: humanity
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...single-party state that's been accused of persecuting the Hmong since they backed U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Thailand maintains that Hmong living illegally in Thailand are economic migrants, not political refugees in need of international protection - but the decision to forcibly repatriate them drew international condemnation. Human Rights Watch called the expulsion "appalling," while the U.S. State Department argued that the refugees deserved to be protected from threats they faced in their homeland...
...member of an upper-crust Nigerian family apparently seek to become an international terrorist linked to al-Qaeda? "It is not shocking and it is not surprising," says Shehu Sani, a human-rights activist and expert on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. "There exists a socioeconomic and political atmosphere in the north [of Nigeria] that has created such kinds of conditions for these kinds of things." Sani says the phenomenon can be traced back five years to the country's northeast, when a group of young Muslims from a wealthy background launched what became known as Nigeria's Taliban movement...
...English grandmaster Nigel Short says that chess computers, which now regularly beat the top human players, are taking away some of the mystery of the game. He likens them to "chainsaws chopping down the Amazon." What do you make of that? I can see his point. Any amateur can look at top-level games, and instead of appreciating the mystery behind the moves they will simply look at the evaluation of the computer. I'm not afraid the computer will find all the ideas and leave no room for imagination...
...Human rights groups say the length of Liu's sentence is the longest they've seen for a subversion charge, a harsh punishment meant to warn other activists. "The explicit message being sent is: we are brooking no challenge, no further dissent of this nature and if you continue, this is the consequence. It's the old 'kill the chicken to scare the monkeys' routine," says Joshua Rosenzweig, a Hong Kong-based official with the Dui Hua Foundation, a human-rights group. "The implicit message or unintended message is the government is very, very afraid of allowing any sort...
...conviction and sentencing, say human rights groups, is evidence that beneath China's pretensions of modernity is the old, intolerant authoritarianism, albeit gussied up with legalisms. "The Chinese government's decision to sentence Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison on subversion charges is a travesty of justice and reflects yet again the government's willingness to use the law as a weapon to silence dissent," Phelim Kine, an Asia researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch, wrote after the verdict. "The severity of Liu's sentence puts the lie to the government's lofty rhetoric on commitment...