HUMAN RIGHTS

Congo has witnessed bloodshed over the disputed election.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 and the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) seem to be two sides of the same coin. Both pieces of legislation are, apparently, aimed at eliminating any kind of attack or even the possibility of an attack on the U.S. government and its corporate allies, a statement made by the government themselves. Essentially, the former is viewed as an anti-terrorist law and the latter an anti-piracy tool.

Hawa is apparently still determined to enroll in college.

The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from a heart attack over the weekend has prompted an avalanche of reaction from around the globe.

Kim Jong Il, like Muammar Gaddafi , has died at age 69 after decades of tyrannical rule. But as North Korea scrambles to determine the country's future, many more dictators remain in power. From Arab Spring autocrats in Syria and Sudan to the leaders of Ethiopia and Uganda, here are the eight worst dictators still in power today.

President Barack Obama's backtracking from his earlier stand to veto the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has put Americans under the risk of losing their human rights. The Senate and Congress have already passed the bill and Obama now seems ready to sign a piece of legislature that could become a draconian piece of legislature making U.S. citizens vulnerable to legal abuse.

Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright jailed by Communists who became Czech president and a worldwide symbol of peace and freedom after leading the bloodless Velvet Revolution, died at 75 on Sunday.

Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred: Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright who was jailed by communists and then went on to lead the bloodless Velvet Revolution and become Czech president, died at 75 on Sunday.

The ABC comedy Work It doesn't even premiere until Jan, 3, and already it's invoking ire from rights groups.

An update on Youcef Nadarkhani, the Christian pastor in Iran who has been sentenced to death.

In China to promote his new film, actor Christian Bale was assaulted by government-backed guards as he attempted to visit a prominent Chinese activist detained in his home in eastern Shandong Province.

'Dark Knight' star Christian Bale has been the center of cinematic buzz not just his for upcoming role as Batman in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, but also for a China car chase after a visit to blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng turned sour.

Syrian armed forces have been directly ordered to kill, torture and indiscriminately arrest people in an effort to quell the civilian uprising that has roiled the country for months, according to defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch.

Blogger and human rights activist, Zainab al-Khawaja, who called Bahrain a dictatorship, was arrested Thursday during an anti-government protest in the Gulf kingdom.

The Dark Knight Rises trailer may have been topped in excitement by a recent Christian Bale China car chase on Friday after the British actor and the star of the next spring's much-anticipated Batman movie attempted to visit blind lawyer and human rights activist Chen Guangcheng in the city of Linyi and got into a brief altercation with Chinese guards, according to reports.

The International Criminal Court is suspicious about the manner in which Moammar Gaddafi was killed in October.

Indonesian police have detained 65 young men and women, from different areas in Aceh Besar, of the country's Banda Aceh province, and shaved their heads because they apparently posed a threat to Islamic values; these youngsters reportedly attended a punk rock concert on Sunday.

Syrian army deserters killed at least 27 soldiers and security force personnel in a series of clashes in the southern province of Deraa at dawn Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The young woman, identified only as Gulnaz, has become a symbol of the hundreds of Afghan women who are believed to be languishing in prison.

Thousands of residents of a south China village rallied on Wednesday in defiance of police who sealed off the area to contain a long-running feud over land grabs and anger over the death of a village leader in police custody.

Uzbekistan is using torture -- both physical and psychological – on prisoners.