AFGHANISTAN: Child Rapist Police Return Behind U.S., UK Troops

The strategy of the major U.S. and British military offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province aimed at wresting it from the Taliban is based on bringing back Afghan army and police to maintain permanent control of the population, so the foreign forces can move on to another insurgent stronghold.

AFGHANISTAN: Govt Denies Legal Inequality

The head of the Afghan Supreme Court, Mohammad Zaman Sangri, denies that a legal double standard exists in Afghanistan, saying that all Afghans receive equal treatment before the law.

AFGHANISTAN: Rape – The Most Vulnerable Victims of Corruption

Being powerful in Afghanistan does not only mean that you can break the laws of government. It also means that you can abuse your fellow citizens in the most awful ways and never be punished.

AFGHANISTAN: Two Justice Systems for Poor and Rich

Three weeks ago, Afghan President Hamid Karzai pardoned five international narcotics traffickers after the Supreme Court found the men guilty and handed down a sentence of 12 to 15 years in prison.

RIGHTS-US: Judge Slams Govt Over Afghan Detainee

A federal judge last week excoriated U.S. government lawyers for advocating the continued detention of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay after his "confession" was ruled inadmissible because it was extracted through torture.

CANADA: Afghanistan Exit Could Bring Escalated Air War

Amid reports that the Barack Obama administration is quietly lobbying the Conservative government in Ottawa to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan's Kandahar province beyond 2011, Stephen Harper is finding himself in an increasingly awkward dilemma.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Group Seeks Probe of Mass Graves

A prominent human rights group is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate why the administration of former President George W. Bush blocked three different probes into war crimes in Afghanistan where as many as 2,000 surrendered Taliban fighters were reportedly suffocated in container trucks and then buried in a mass grave by Afghan forces operating jointly with U.S. forces.

PAKISTAN: Scared, But Terrible Camp Life Forces IDPs Home

Civilians who fled the Malakand region in northwest Pakistan after the army launched operations against the Taliban, are starting to trickle home. On Wednesday, the government said 2,885 families have returned to Swat and Buner.

Q&A: Geopolitics Antithetical to Human Development

Sam Worthington is the president and CEO of InterAction, a coalition of 175 U.S.-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that focus on aiding the world's most poor and vulnerable people.

Q&A: "The Killing of Women Is Like Killing a Bird Today in Afghanistan"

It is easy to understand why epithets such as brave and courageous often accompany the name of Malalai Joya. Slight of stature and serenely demure, the young Afghan woman’s past and present encapsulate the plight of her countrywomen.

PAKISTAN: Displacement Traumatic for Pregnant Women

Pregnant women uprooted by the violence in the Malakand region, northwest Pakistan, have suffered acutely in refugee camps for the internally displaced.

RIGHTS: Afghan Prisoners at U.S. Airbase in Legal Limbo

Following a loss in federal court, the organisation representing detainees held by the U.S. without charge at Bagram prison in Afghanistan called on the Barack Obama administration to "reverse the flawed policies of the previous Bush White House" and end the indefinite detention without trial of Afghan civilians held in U.S. custody.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Four Thousand Marines to “Drink Lots of Tea”

After months of planning and putting pieces in order, aspects of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan are beginning to be concretely implemented – including a surge of troops and attempts to curtail the poppy trade that allegedly funds insurgents.

POLITICS: U.S. Uses False Taliban Aid Charge to Pressure Iran

The Barack Obama administration has given new prominence to a Bush administration charge that Iran is providing military training and assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, for which no evidence has ever been produced, and which has been discredited by data obtained by IPS from the Pentagon itself.

PAKISTAN: Public Backs Army’s Push Against Taliban, Poll Finds

Pakistani public opinion remains supportive of the military’s fight against the Pakistani Taliban, said a new poll released Wednesday. However, Pakistanis roundly reject the U.S. military campaign in the region.

POLITICS: U.N. Decries Aid Shortfall in Afghanistan

The United Nations, which has expressed disappointment over the slow disbursement of development aid to crisis-stricken Afghanistan, has hurled one of its biggest political insults at Western donors: threatening to turn to a U.S. philanthropist for financial assistance.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Bagram Detainees Treated “Worse Than Animals”

An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed that former detainees at the U.S. Bagram airbase in Afghanistan were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs.

MIDEAST: Iran Crisis Ripples Outward

As the political crisis that erupted after Iran's Jun. 12 elections enters its third week, it is becoming evident that this crisis will have repercussions in many parts of the Middle East - and far beyond.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Airstrike Report Belies “Blame Taliban” Line

The version of the official military investigation into the disastrous May 4 airstrike in Farah province made public last week by the Central Command was carefully edited to save the U.S. command in Afghanistan the embarrassment of having to admit that earlier claims blaming the massive civilian deaths on the "Taliban" were fraudulent.

Q&A: Military Losing GI Hearts and Minds

The continuing occupation or Iraq and the growing war in Afghanistan are leaving permanent physical and emotional scars on a whole generation of U.S. soldiers. Not since Vietnam have so many GIs objected to a war, and never have military families spoken out so strongly for withdrawal.

POPULATION: The Worst Places to Be a Refugee

Gaza, South Africa and Thailand are among the world's worst places to be a refugee, according to the latest annual World Refugee Survey released here Wednesday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).