Petraeus Spin on IED War Belied by Soaring Casualties

Gen. David Petraeus claimed limited success this week in the war within a war over the Taliban's planting of roadside bombs, but official Pentagon data shows the Taliban clearly winning that war by planting more bombs and killing many more U.S. and NATO troops since the troop surge began in early 2010.

Kenyan Women Sceptical Over Constitution’s Promise

Charity Karemi operates a pay-phone booth and sells mobile phone scratch cards in a Nairobi suburb east of the capital. She has mixed expectations of the benefits she will gain from Kenya’s new constitution.

Rendition Suit Heads for U.S. High Court

In a move legal experts are calling unusual, the one-vote court majority that tossed out the lawsuit brought by five men who claim they were tortured under the "extraordinary rendition" programme of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency departed from customary practice in suggesting several other ways the victims might obtain justice.

INDIA: Gov’t Hems and Haws Over ‘Honour Killings’

Instances of ‘honour killings’ in Indian communities still steeped in traditional beliefs continue unabated. Yet the government has not enacted tougher laws that will deal a decisive blow against this societal scourge.

RIGHTS-CHILE: No Dialogue in Mapuche Conflict

The Chilean government is pushing through legal reforms in an attempt to bring to an end a nearly two month hunger strike by 34 Mapuche indigenous prisoners. But it is failing to address two critical aspects of the conflict: the lack of effective dialogue and a failure to recognise it as a political problem.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Calls for Change of Strategy Grow Louder

Amid continued high levels of violence and a steady stream of reports of high-level government corruption in Kabul, a growing number of foreign policy specialists are urging President Barack Obama to reconsider his counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy in Afghanistan.

U.N. Climate Body Urged to Take Lead in Gender Focus

Two weeks before the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review summit at the United Nations, concerns are being raised that gender equality is still largely divorced from efforts to address climate change, even though women have a critical role to play in solving - and are often most affected by – the problem.

U.N. Weighs Sanctions Against Perpetrators of DRC Mass Rapes

The U.N. Security Council is considering leveraging sanctions against the perpetrators of the mass rapes that occurred last month in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following a meeting held on the recent violence Tuesday.

Slammed For Its Roma Expulsions, France Shifts Rhetoric

Faced with mounting criticism because of its expulsions of Roma, or Gypsies, the French government is trying to gain allies in what it calls the "battle" against undocumented immigration and people-trafficking networks.

Sri Lanka Shuns West, Finds Solace in Emerging Powers’ Arms

The European Union’s decision to suspend trade preferences for Sri Lankan exports may have finally come into force, but the island nation is not budging an inch on any of the powerful bloc’s recommendations on its controversial human rights record.

ENVIRONMENT-PHILIPPINES: Mining Project Digs Up Locals’ Ire

Depending on who one talks to, Mt Mantalingahan is either a treasure trove of untapped minerals lying underneath the earth's crust, or a biodiversity hotspot that is home to some of the worlds rarest and threatened animals.

US: Religious Leaders Condemn Growing Islamophobia

Leaders of some three dozen mainstream U.S. religious denominations Tuesday condemned what many commentators have called a rising tide of Islamophobia touched off by the recent controversy over the construction of a Muslim community centre in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the twin World Trade Centre towers destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

PAKISTAN: Floods Leave Afghan Refugees Down and Out

When they are not looking forlornly over what used to be their homes or trying to find help for relatives who have fallen ill, many Afghan refugees chase after vehicles that pass through the Great Trunk Road connecting Peshawar to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

MIGRATION-MEXICO: A Cemetery without Tombstones or Epitaphs

With a backpack full of dreams, Gelder Lizardo Boche, a 17-year-old from Guatemala, set out for the United States on Aug. 9 from his hometown of San Antonio La Paz, with two brothers-in-law.

NICARAGUA: Extreme Poverty Falls – But Opposition Asks ‘How’?

An independent study has confirmed that extreme poverty in Nicaragua fell by 7.5 percentage points between 2005 and 2009, an achievement clouded by criticism of the environmental costs, a supposed lack of transparency and the paternalism of the country's social programmes.

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Death Penalty Still Hangs In The Balance

It has been a long and exhausting wait for anti-death penalty campaigners like Akiko Takada, but there are few signs that capital punishment will be taken off Japan’s law books any time soon.

EUROPE: New Expulsions Hit People Without a Place

Roma gypsies are routinely described as Europe's largest ethnic minority. Numbering between 10 and 16 million, their combined population exceeds that of many European Union countries. Yet their numerical strength offers no compensation for the poverty, persecution and scapegoating that the Roma have to endure -- or for how their welfare is accorded a low priority by the EU's institutions.

INDIA: Fears of Privacy Loss Pursue Ambitious ID Project

Fears about loss of privacy are being voiced as India gears up to launch an ambitious scheme to biometrically identify and number each of its 1.2 billion inhabitants.

MIDEAST: Media New Battleground for Palestinians and Israelis

Palestinians and Israelis are using the media as a new battleground in their war to win hearts and minds across the globe, even as the protracted conflict in the Mideast drags on with no apparent end in sight.

MIDEAST: The Lights Are Going Out on Gaza

The Muslim festival Eid approaches, but not the end to power cuts that have darkened the month-long Ramadan fasting leading up to the festival. Or to the agony of Gazans, made worse by the reminder that it's approaching festive time.

SOUTH ASIA: Fishers’ Release A Good Catch for India-Pakistan Ties

It took almost two hours before Jeenti Deva, 16, could board the bus that would bring him home to India, but the long wait did not stop him from smiling.