Gross human rights violations, including forced displacement, forced labor, attacks by soldiers on civilians, injury from landmines and destruction or theft of food supplies, have been widespread in eastern Burma (also known as Myanmar), with over half of households in displaced areas reporting incidents in the 12 months prior to a 2004 survey.

A new analysis of high-resolution satellite images -- completed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) -- pinpoints evidence consistent with village destruction, forced relocations, and a growing military presence at 25 sites across eastern Burma where eye-witnesses have reported human rights violations.

The Forty-first Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights opens Wednesday in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. The commission is charged by the African Union to protect and promote human and people's rights on the continent.

A top United Nations envoy says the world body will investigate human rights violations committed during recent fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, says countries in Central Asia continue to use the war on terrorism as an excuse to violate the human rights of their citizens. Arbour has just returned from a two-week visit to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.

The U.S. will be checked for the cases of the human rights violations later this month. It is highly criticized for Texas center detain immigrant families and two border areas announced they would finish off Mexicans illegally crossing the border. So a United Nations Human Right expert is going to visit U.S.

The U.N. human rights chief is calling on Sudan's government to investigate possible atrocities committed in the war-torn Darfur region.

An Ethiopian official denies an Associated Press report that says U.S. officials are interrogating terrorism suspects in secret prisons in Ethiopia. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, says the report is likely true, given its own report documenting cooperation between the Kenyan, Ethiopian, Somali and U.S. governments on the war on terror.

The Georgian Justice Ministry has announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Moscow at the European Court of Human Rights over Russia's mass deportations of Georgians last autumn.

Amnesty International says the human rights situation in two South Asian countries - Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - has deteriorated in recent years. The human rights watchdog says that in Bangladesh people promoting human rights are under attack, while in Sri Lanka an escalated ethnic conflict has resulted in the killings and disappearances of many civilians. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, where Amnesty has two reports.

The U.S. administration has criticized the UN Human Rights Council for a recent vote ending a routine examination of the status of human rights in Iran and Uzbekistan. The council's March 26 vote was based on the recommendation by a five-nation panel that included Zimbabwe, which itself has been widely accused of human rights abuses.