A new Amnesty International report says about a third of the more than 1,500 people executed in 24 countries during 2007 were killed in China. A further 3,000 were sentenced to death in 51 countries.

The human rights group Amnesty International issued a report ahead of the March 8 International Women's Day on the threats and abuse faced by school-age girls. Others, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, marked the day calling the world's attention to women's issues and appealing for change. Tendai Maphosa has this report for VOA from London.

Amnesty International says Russia has clamped down on political freedoms ahead of a crucial presidential election on Sunday. The Britain-based human rights organization accuses Russian authorities of targeting human rights activists, independent organizations and journalists, several of whom died under suspicious circumstances. Stefan Bos reports for VOA from Budapest.

Amnesty International is urging the U.N. security council to impose an arms embargo on Burma, and urged the country's main arms suppliers - China and India - to suspend all deals.

The international community has not faced up to the scale of the Iraqi refugee crisis, leaving Syria and Jordan to deal with the exodus, Amnesty International says in a report out today.

Torture, ill-treatment and killings continue to be met with persistent impunity for the security forces in Turkey, Amnesty International charged in a new report, Turkey: The Entrenched Culture of Impunity Must End, released on July 4th.

In April, 20-year-old Said Mohammad Reza Musavi Shirazi was executed. His crime? A murder he allegedly committed when he was 16. According to a June 27 Amnesty International report, in Iran, defendants younger than 18 are being hanged after quick decisions and hurried procedures.

Some of the biggest names in music have come together to raise money and awareness for Amnesty International's human rights work, with an emphasis on the Darfur crisis. Tendai Maphosa has more in this report for VOA from London.

Amnesty International USA is using powerful satellite cameras to monitor highly vulnerable villages in war-torn Darfur - the first-ever technological capability by human rights defenders to track possible targets of attack, prevent new atrocities and save lives.

Amnesty International's recent 2007 human rights report harshly criticized the United States for what it called Washington's "breathtakingly shameless" doublespeak on human rights. It accused the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush of overlooking and even encouraging rights abuses around the world while pursuing the war on terror.

Amnesty International says democracy in Latin America is threatened by chronically weak institutions and undermined by a lack of independence of the judiciary, impunity and endemic corruption.

Governments and armed groups around the world are using "the politics of fear" to crush human rights and encourage dangerous divisions in society, according to Amnesty International's 2007 human rights report, released today.