A group of civic activists and North Korean defectors have urged an international tribunal to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the Stalinist country and put dictator Kim Jong-Il on trial. About 150 defectors signed a petition calling for the International Criminal Court to investigate reports of human rights violations in the North, such as extreme torture, sexual slavery and prison brutality. The group visited the Hague, Netherlands, this week to file its petition with the court. “We were subjected to reduced food rations so extreme that we literally saw scores of our fellow prisoners die of malnutrition, starvation and disease,” the petition said. The letter was also sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Reports from China indicate that the withdrawal and replacement of old North Korean currency and the release of redenominated bills beginning November 30 has triggered widespread confusion in the communist state. The Daily NK, a South Korean-based newspaper with sources inside North Korea, reported from Changchun, China that the Ministry of People’s Security (MPS) was ordered to control residents. A lot of attention has been paid to the proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda. And rightfully so, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 would sentenceHIV positive homosexuals to death for having sex, and severely punish any homosexual with up to life imprisonment. Any Ugandan, gay or straight, who knows a homosexual and fails to report him or her to the authorities could face up to seven years in prison. There is intense international pressure on Uganda to withdrawal the bill, Hillary Clinton highlighted the bill today in a speech on human rights saying that “law should not become an instrument of oppression.” Even U.S. President Obama said in a statement over the weekend that the law “moves against the tide of history.” Human rights groups say this draconian law has been pushed by the U.S. evangelical movement. American pastors were prominent speakers at an anti-homosexual conference last March. A key Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa who has been pushing the law, has been a featured speaker at Rick Warren’s Saddleback church. After weeks of silence, Warren released a video last week condemning the bill. The newly re-elected president of Abkhazia, an unrecognized breakaway region of Georgia, Sergei Bagapsh will pay a visit to Turkey soon, citing the need to reach out to members of the Abkhaz diaspora currently living in the country. At a press conference following his landslide victory in the Abkhaz presidential elections, which Georgia labeled an “immoral comedy,” Bagapsh said he plans to make an informal trip to Turkey very soon. “I will have informal meetings with Turkish officials,” Bagapsh said. Abkhazia has been a battleground for Russia since the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia over the disputed region of South Ossetia. Russia immediately recognized the separatist regime and pushed its allies to act in the same vein. Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru also have recognized Abkhazia as a sign of solidarity with Russia. About two thirds of around 130,000 registered voters cast their ballots Saturday at polling stations throughout the small, subtropical province on the Black Sea coast. It was the first vote since Moscow recognized Abkhazia’s independence in the wake of Russia’s war with Georgia in August 2008. Each voter had his passport stamped to avoid fraud and multiple voting. Their vote will test the ties that NATO re-established with Russia last week. Political ties between the Cold War foes had been severed for more than a year after Russia recognized Abkhazia and another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia. The province is home to some 40,000 ethnic Georgians who are not eligible to vote because they don’t hold Abkhazian passports. The Abkhazians voted for a leader whose main tasks will be to shape relations with Russia and develop a functioning economy and bureaucracy, all while fighting claims against his legitimacy made by Georgia and much of the international community.