RIGHTS: U.S. Downplays Report on Guantanamo Prisoner Abuse

U.S. officials Tuesday insisted that detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been treated ''humanely,'' despite a Red Cross report that concluded interrogators were using psychological and physical techniques that were ''tantamount to torture''.

IRAQ: Neglect Follows Siege of Fallujah

The Iraqi ministry of health is failing to provide enough support to hundreds of thousands who fled Fallujah.

IRAQ: ‘Unusual Weapons’ Used in Fallujah

The U.S. military has used poison gas and other non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses report..

IRAQ: Debt Relief Weighed Down By IMF Burden

Rich nations' decision to accept a U.S. request and forgive part of Iraq's debt will help the occupied country but also saddle it with a burdensome economic programme that threatens to take decision-making power from Iraqis and put it in the hands of officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), say critics.

IRAQ: Occupier of a Prime Minister’s Chair

The prime minister is following in the footsteps of the last president. The rule of Ayad Allawi, the U.S. appointed interim prime minister of Iraq, is now more in the style of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein than a leader of a supposedly democratic state.

RIGHTS: U.S. Double Standard Prompts UN Tactical Twists

The United States, which traditionally castigates human rights violators before the United Nations each year, has rarely or ever been formally condemned by the world body for its own transgressions of civil liberties.

IRAQ: France Stands Up to the U.S.

The differences between France and Iraq entered a new phase at the summit that began at the Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh Monday.

IRAQ: As U.S. Forces Raided a Mosque

An eyewitness commentary to IPS through a U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque Friday gives a vivid picture of what a 'successful raid' can be like.

IRAQ: Media Repression in ‘Liberated’ Land

Journalists are increasingly being detained and threatened by the U.S.-installed interim government in Iraq. Media have been stopped particularly from covering recent horrific events in Fallujah.

IRAQ-BRITAIN: U.N. Committee Investigates Torture Allegations

The British government has submitted a report to the U.N. Committee Against Torture acknowledging 17 possible cases of torture committed by its troops in Iraq, a source close to the committee told IPS.

IRAQ: Reinforce Rules of War, Urges Amnesty

Amnesty International (AI) has urged the U.S. government to conduct an open investigation into the apparent killing of a wounded prisoner in Iraq by a U.S. soldier, and to make the probe's findings public.

CORRUPTION: Security Council States to Blame for Oil-for-Food

The United States, which has accused the United Nations of condoning bribery and corruption in the now defunct oil-for-food programme in Iraq, has not itself been ethical, says a former senior U.N. official who once headed the humanitarian project in Baghdad.

IRAQ: 800 Civilians Feared Dead in Fallujah

At least 800 civilians have been killed during the U.S. military siege of Fallujah, a Red Cross official estimates.

POLITICS-U.S.: The Good Soldier Abandons the Field

Monday's announcement that Secretary of State Colin Powell, by far the most popular of U.S. President George W Bush's war cabinet, has submitted his resignation marks the formal launch of a new scramble for top national-security posts that could bring an even more hard-line configuration to power.

MIDEAST: The Future Hangs on This Moment

Just one moment in that jostling crowd under undisciplined Palestinian security forces at the funeral of Yasser Arafat was enough to pick up on huge problems for resumption of a peace process in the Middle East.

IRAQ: The Other Face of U.S. ‘Success’ in Fallujah

Everyone saw it coming, only the U.S. forces did not: humanitarian disaster in Fallujah, and stronger resistance against U.S. and allied occupying forces all around Iraq.

RIGHTS: U.N. Report Slams Use of Torture to Beat Terror

No country can justify torture, the humiliation of prisoners or violation of international conventions in the guise of fighting terrorism, says a U.N. report released here.

MIDEAST: The Leader Who Offered Nationhood to Refugees/CORRECTION*/

Nelson Mandela spoke for much of the world when he praised Yasser Arafat in the preface of a biography as a leader who "transformed the Palestinians' status from that of refugees to that of a nation in the most complete sense of the term."

MIDEAST: Just What Mr Palestine Ruled Over

For almost four decades, Yasser Arafat was Mr Palestine to many in this fractured homeland.

MIDEAST: The Leader Who Offered Nationhood to Refugees

Nelson Mandela spoke for much of the world when he praised Yasser Arafat in the preface of a biography as a leader who "transformed the Palestinians' status from that of refugees to that of a nation in the most complete sense of the term."

POLITICS-U.S.: Bush Pick for Legal Chief Bedevils Foes

Wednesday's appointment by U.S. President George W Bush of his long-time friend, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, as the next attorney general puts Democrats and civil-rights activists in something of a quandary.