“The Philippines has enacted a law aimed at stopping the military and police officers from abducting people suspected of antigovernment activity, one of the ugly legacies of the country’s years of dictatorship.” the New York Times reports.

According to the newspaper, the law, which President Benigno S. Aquino III signed late Friday, makes the “arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the state” punishable by life in prison. It also holds superior officers liable for abductions committed by those under their command. Congress passed the legislation in October.

Read more in New York Times

Members of the Frontline Socialist Party burn a white van made of cloth at a protest march on Monday, December 10, 2012 in Colombo Sri Lanka. Two of the party’s activists, Lalith Kumar Weeraraju and Kuhan Murugananthan, went missing in December 2011 when the duo were organising activities for the World Human Rights day in the former war-zone in the North of Sri Lanka. A bike belonging to Murugananthan was later recovered by police, but no headway has been made in determining their whereabouts since. The FSP allege that they were abducted by government paramilitary forces – a claim that the government vehemently denies. Hundreds are reported to have disappeared in the island since the run-up to the final phases of the war, many of them abducted in white vans. (Text and the Photo Dinidu de Alwis) dinidudealwis.wordpress.com