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+12 +4
Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America's Prisons.
We throw thousands of men in the hole for the books they read, the company they keep, the beliefs they hold. Here's why.
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+14 +4
Chinese labor camp inmate tells of true horror of Halloween 'SOS'
The decorations came in a $29 "Totally Ghoul" toy set that Keith purchased in a local Kmart store in 2011. When she opened the package before Halloween last year, a letter fell out. In broken English mixed with Chinese, the author cried for help: "If you occasionally (sic) buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here... will thank and remember you forever."
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+19 +6
Former Garment Worker Fights to Unionize Walmart's Near-Slave Labor in Bangladesh
Garment workers have been voiceless for years, forced to endure long days for next-to-nothing wages without benefits or safety protections. Manufacturers like Walmart and European clothing giant Primark abuse the system to keep costs down and the price of their goods cheap. And they fear people like Kalpona Akter.
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+8 +2
Yemen police 'stop child's wedding'
The human rights ministry in Yemen says that one of its officials has managed to stop the wedding of a nine-year-old girl, due to take place on Friday. An official told the BBC it was the first such intervention to stop a child marriage in Yemen.
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+21 +4
Homosexuality illegal in 41 out of 53 Commonwealth countries
Anti-gay discrimination not on the agenda of this month's heads of government meeting in Sri Lanka
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+20 +4
100 Factories Close, As Garment Worker Protests In Bangladesh Turn Violent
Garment workers demanding higher pay clashed with police and attacked factories on Monday in an industrial belt on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital. The workers have rejected a proposed 5,300 takas ($66.25) monthly minimum wage, a raise by 77 percent. They demand 8,114 takas ($100) instead in place of 3,000 takas ($38) they currently get.
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+14 +1
Revealed: Egypt is the worst Arab country for women
The fallout from the political upheaval in Egypt has made it the worst country in the Arab world to be a woman in, according to research published exclusively today in The Independent.
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+8 +2
UN official urges Qatar labour reforms
Qatar should allow workers to unionise, abolish the "kafala" system, adopt legislation to protect labour rights, and properly enforce existing legislation, according to the United Nations.
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Analysis+8 +1
Mauritania Confronts Long Legacy of Slavery
The protesters gathered in front of the low-slung police station, yelling “No to Slavery” and “Freedom.” They had come from across the country to demand the arrest of a family accused of holding a slave since childhood, but they elicited little more than dispassionate stares from the police officers sitting silently before them. The subprefect of the district went to take a nap in the afternoon heat.
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+7 +1
My life as an out gay person in Russia
Since Russia imposed draconian new laws banning 'homosexual propaganda', hostility and homophobic attacks have increased. So what is life like for a writer who lives with her girlfriend and their three children?
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+13 +3
You can't beat politics with technology, says Pirate Bay cofounder Peter Sunde
People who are disenchanted with politics should try and engage with the democratic process rather than turn to technology for alternative methods of doing things, says Peter Sunde, cofounder of The Pirate Bay
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+10 +4
Qatar 2022 World Cup workers 'treated like cattle', Amnesty report finds
The report – published a week after Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, met the country's emir and declared Qatar was "on the right track" in dealing with workers' rights – claims that some migrant workers are victims of forced labour, a modern form of slavery, and treated appallingly by subcontractors employed by leading construction companies in a sector rife with abuse.
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+11 +1
Moscow Mayor Thinks Mosques Attract Illegal Migration
Moscow is banning the construction of new mosques, the latest sign of the growing anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment in Russia.
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+16 +3
Moroccan teen, forced to marry her rapist, commits suicide
Justice minister says legislation to stop the practice is still underway
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+25 +4
Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour signs 'anti-protest law'
Rights groups and lawyers say legislation requiring permission to gather will make legal demonstrations almost impossible
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+14 +4
Brixton slavery case: couple accused of keeping women captive ran Maoist sect in the 1970s
The suspects accused of holding three women as slaves for more than 30 years can be revealed today as a couple who ran a bizarre Maoist sect in south London.
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+11 +5
Afghanistan 'plans to reintroduce public stoning as punishment for adultery'
Human Rights Watch calls on international donors to withhold funds if government presses ahead with controversial new law to bring back stoning
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+12 +3
Was Humanitarian Intervention a Passing Fad?
In Syria, we have forgotten our promise of “never again.”
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+15 +3
Iraq: Wave of Journalist Killings
Four journalists have been assassinated in Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Ninewa Province, since early October 2013. Iraqi security officials have said they were investigating the killings, the most recent on November 24, but have not arrested or charged anyone in connection with the attacks.
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+26 +4
Behind Closed Doors With the Women of Saudi Arabia
In 2009, the British Council invited Olivia Arthur to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to teach a two-week photography workshop for women. She agreed with the hope that she would also have the chance to make some work of her own. Her photos from that time, as well as two subsequent trips, are collected in her book, Jeddah Diary, published by Fishbar. “I wanted to make a series that would open up some of this strange world to people who don't know about it,” Arthur said via email.
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