Rising Threats to Minorities in Sudan, Russia, Philippines

The growing threats against minorities and ethnic groups - who are vulnerable to mass killings and genocides - have significantly increased in three countries: Sudan, Russia and the Philippines.

U.S. to Face Litany of Complaints at UN Human Rights Council

Human rights groups are telling the United Nations that the United States is failing to hold corporations, including private government contractors, accountable for human rights abuses ranging from human trafficking to murder.

Prosecutor Seeks Anonymous Jury in New York “Terror” Trial

U.S. Justice Department lawyers petitioned a federal court Wednesday to begin a controversial terror-related trial in New York City with an "anonymous jury" in order to protect the jurors, lawyers and court officials.

Privacy Groups Challenge U.S. Airport Body Scanners

More than 30 privacy and civil liberties organisations have filed a formal petition with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), urging the federal agency to shut down the use of 'full body scanners' (FBS) at the nation's airports.

McChrystal Backtracks on Troop Veto for Kandahar Shuras

The U.S. military has now officially backtracked from its earlier suggestion that it would seek the consent of local shuras, or consultative conferences with those elders, to carry out the coming military occupation of Kandahar city and nearby districts – contradicting a pledge by Afghan President Hamid Karzai not to carry out the operation without such consent.

Q&A: Treatment of New York Detainee Is “Legalised Torture”

For the past almost three years, a U.S. citizen, Syed Fahad Hashmi, has been held in isolation in a federal detention centre in New York City.

POLITICS: Nuclear Security Summit Boosts Disarmament Agenda

On the second and last day of the largest gathering of world leaders ever in Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama connected the commitments made here on securing vulnerable nuclear materials to the broader goal of a "nuclear-free world".

POLITICS: Yemen Refuses to Hunt Al-Awlaki for U.S.

Last weekend, authorities in Yemen said they would not participate in the extrajudicial killing of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was recently targeted by military and intelligence agencies in Washington.

U.S.: Guantanamo Detainee Ordered Freed

After nine years in captivity, a U.S. federal court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo prisoner once described as the "highest-value detainee at the facility" - and set off a firestorm of protest from Republican lawmakers.

U.S.: Ignorance of Afghan Society Led to Botched Raids

A Special Operations Forces raid on Feb. 12 on what was supposed to be the compound of a Taliban leader but that killed three women and two Afghan government officials demonstrated a fatal weakness of the U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan: after eight years of operating there, the U.S. military still has no understanding of the personal, tribal and other local socio-political conflicts.

POLITICS: Afghan Official Says U.S. Raiders Hid Killings

The head of the Afghan Ministry of Interior investigation said publicly for the first time his investigators had accepted the testimony of family members of the victims of the Feb. 12 raid by U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) that the U.S. troops had dug bullets out of the bodies of their victims in an apparent effort to cover up the killings and that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal had agreed with the team's conclusions.

RIGHTS-US: Suit Challenges Ultra-Restrictive Prison Units

Two U.S. federal prisons are being used overwhelmingly to hold Muslim prisoners and prisoners with unpopular political beliefs, and are practicing religious profiling, retaliation and arbitrary punishment, according to a lawsuit filed by the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

POLITICS-US: Judge Rebukes Bush-Era Spying Programme

The efforts of the Barack Obama administration to maintain the secrecy of the counterterrorism policies of its predecessor, the administration of former President George W. Bush, hit a major speed bump last week.

RIGHTS-US: Legality of Drone Strikes Still in Question

While welcoming an initial effort by the administration of President Barack Obama to offer a legal justification for drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists overseas, human rights groups say critical questions remain unanswered.

POLITICS: Obama Expands Military Involvement in Africa

When Pres. Barack Obama took office in January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral security policy that had been pursued by the George W. Bush administration toward Africa, as well as toward other parts of the world.

LEBANON: ‘Roumieh Prison Breeds Criminality Not Reform’

Lebanon’s notorious Roumieh prison, the scene of a stand-off between inmates and security personnel this month, is no stranger to rioting, escapes, corruption and abuse.

AFGHANISTAN: McChrystal’s Support for Raids Belies New Image

Gen. Stanley McChrystal has recently acquired the image of a master strategist of the population-sensitive counterinsurgency, reducing civilian casualties from airstrikes and insisting that troops avoid firing when civilians might be hit during the recent offensive in Helmand Province. One recent press story even referred to a "McChrystal Doctrine" that focuses on "winning over civilians rather than killing insurgents."

RIGHTS: Two-Thirds of Boys in Afghan Jails Are Brutalised, Study Finds

Nearly two of every three male juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now incarcerated in the country's juvenile justice system.

RIGHTS-PERU: Alleged Letter-Bomb Killer Faces Justice

The arrest in Peru of a former Army Intelligence Service (SIE) agent, retired Captain Víctor Penas, may clear up the murder of journalist Melissa Alfaro, and the mutilation of human rights defender Augusto Zúñiga, both victims of letter-bombs in 1991.

U.S.: Republicans Seek Deal on Detainees

The prominent scholar who believes that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-styled mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, should receive no trial is nonetheless advising Sen. Lindsey Graham on a proposal to the White House to create "an overarching detainee framework", including a new approach to habeas corpus petitions and indefinite detention of "too dangerous to free" detainees without trial.

TUNISIA: Rights Groups Condemn Harassment of Ex-Prisoners

The Tunisian government should stop the harassment of political prisoners after their release from jail, say rights groups in two new reports.