POLITICS-US: Obama Weighs Options as Afghan War Enters Ninth Year

On the eighth anniversary of the launch of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama spent a good part of Wednesday deliberating with his top advisers on what is likely to be one of the most momentous decisions of his tenure: the future of U.S. involvement in that war.

MIGRATION: Remittances Also Drive Political Change

The world's 200 million international migrants have traditionally been viewed in terms of dollars and cents: how much hard currency have they remitted to their home countries?

SOMALIA: President Calls for More Aid in U.S. Visit

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the leader of Somalia's beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG), appealed here this week for increased U.S. and international security and humanitarian assistance for his efforts to defeat hard-line Islamist rebels and reconstruct his war-torn nation.

U.S.: Fears of Blame for Defeat Shadow Afghan War Meetings

In a remarkable parallel with a similar turning point in the Vietnam War 44 years ago, President Barack Obama will preside over a series of meetings in the coming weeks that will determine whether the United States will proceed with an escalation of the Afghanistan War or adjust the strategy to reduce the U.S. military commitment there.

POLITICS: U.S. Afghan Campaign Plan Says Key Groups Back Taliban

The leak of the "initial assessment" of the war in Afghanistan by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander in the war, with its blunt warning that "[f]ailure to provide adequate resources" is likely to result in "mission failure", was part of an obvious effort to force the hand of a reluctant President Barack Obama to agree to a significant increase in U.S. troops.

POLITICS-AFGHANISTAN: Battle for Balkh

Events currently unfolding in Afghanistan's northern province of Balkh may be a preview for the future.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Obama Confronts Democratic Scepticism

Growing scepticism among key Democratic lawmakers about the U.S. commitment to the war in Afghanistan is certain to pose one of the most difficult political challenges faced by President Barack Obama in his first year in office.

US-AFGHANISTAN: “New” Bagram Rules More of the Same?

Human rights activists and legal experts reacted swiftly Monday to disclosures that the U.S. government is planning to introduce new measures it claims would give inmates at Afghanistan's notorious Bagram prison more opportunities to challenge their detention.

RIGHTS-US: Some Guantanamo Prisoners Fight Release

As 13 prisoners held at the U.S. naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba appeared set to finally win their freedom, others are asking their release to be deferred.

RIGHTS-US: Rendition Victim Still Seeking Justice

Thwarted by U.S. courts, a German citizen who claims he was "rendered" by the U.S. and secretly detained and tortured for four months is taking his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

MEXICO: Priests Targeted in Drug-Related and Other Violence

The priesthood has joined journalism as one of the most dangerous occupations in Mexico, according to a report by the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference.

RIGHTS-US: Ashcroft Liable for Wrongful Detention

In what is being hailed as an unprecedented ruling, a federal appeals court has concluded that the George W. Bush administration's first attorney general, John Ashcroft, can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of an innocent U.S. citizen.

RIGHTS-US: Cleared for Release, But…

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that inmates at Guantanamo Bay have a right to go to federal court to challenge their detention, detainees have filed more than 150 such lawsuits.

POLITICS-US: Gates Sells Afghan Strategy Amid Growing Unease

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) remained tight-lipped about the contents of a confidential report on the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in a wide-ranging Pentagon briefing on Thursday.

POLITICS: Taliban’s Tank-Killing Bombs Came from U.S., Not Iran

In support of the official U.S. assertion that Iran is arming its sworn enemy, the Taliban, the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Dennis Blair, has cited a statement by a Taliban commander last year attributing military success against NATO forces to Iranian military assistance.

POLITICS-US: Prominent Conservative Calls for Afghanistan Pullout

A prominent right-wing political pundit has called for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, the latest sign of a growing disenchantment with the war in the U.S.

RIGHTS-US: Group Charges Complicity by CIA Medics in Torture

Did physicians and psychologists help the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency develop a new research protocol to assess and refine the use of waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques?

RIGHTS-US: New York “Terror” Detainee in Draconian Conditions

As the planned closing of the U.S. military's detention centre at Guantanamo Bay draws nearer, human rights activists are raising questions about the treatment of detainees who will be transferred to the U.S. for trial.

POLITICS-US: Afghan Elections Reveal Growing Doubts About War*

Washington continues to wait on results from last week's elections in Afghanistan, but few analysts here expect the outcome to provide much of a boost to the U.S.-backed campaign against the Taliban, regardless of who wins.

RIGHTS-US: CIA Probe Should Go Farther, Groups Say

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision Monday to investigate whether interrogators from the Central Intelligence Agency or its contractors violated any federal laws in applying "enhanced interrogation techniques" to detainees in U.S. custody overseas triggered immediate criticism from human rights advocates and appeared to widen the partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats.

RIGHTS-US: Justice to Probe Detainee Abuses

The issue of detainee interrogation and abuse – lately eclipsed by the debate over U.S. health care reform – bubbled back to the surface Monday in a number of headline-making developments.