RIGHTS-US: Teenage Terror Plot or Wild Imagination?

Following a seven-day trial, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, was convicted in a U.S. federal court earlier this month on several counts of providing material support to terrorists and the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET), a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

POLITICS: “Cautious Optimism” In U.S. About Afghan Elections

Security and diplomacy experts here are calling Thursday's polls in Afghanistan relatively successful, though they caution that the ultimate success of the elections in terms of security and legitimacy is yet to be seen.

POLITICS-US: Court Reins in Terror Finance Policy

A federal court this week ruled for the first time that the U.S. government cannot freeze an organisation's assets under a terror financing law without a warrant based upon probable cause and without telling the organisation the basis for its action and a meaningful opportunity to defend itself.

GERMANY: Terror Plot Emerges as Secret Service Game

It was announced as a terror plot busted. German police had captured three young Muslim men in the small village Medebach-Oberschledor, some 450 km southwest of Berlin Sep. 4 in 2007. The police declared they had seized 730 kilograms of hydrogen peroxide, enough to make 550 kg of explosives.

AFGHANISTAN: Karzai and Warlords Mount Massive Vote Fraud Scheme

Afghanistan's presidential election has long been viewed by U.S. officials as a key to conferring legitimacy on the Afghan government, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his powerful warlord allies have planned to commit large-scale electoral fraud that could have the opposite effect.

DISARMAMENT: U.S. Says No to Nukes, Yes to Conventional Arms

U.S. President Barack Obama’s pledge to take concrete steps towards "a world without nuclear weapons" has garnered overwhelming support from peace activists worldwide.

AFGHANISTAN-US: Military Translators Risk Low Pay, Death

Murtaza "Jimmy" Farukhi was killed while on patrol with the U.S. Marine Corps on Sep. 9, 2008, at the age of 23. He was not a soldier, but a local translator employed by Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel (MEP).

AFGHANISTAN-US: Govt Withholds Information About Bagram Detainees

The U.S. government continues to withhold even the most basic information about prisoners in the Bagram detention facility in Afghanistan, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a New York-based legal rights organisation.

AFGHANISTAN: Holbrooke Heralds US Engagement Pre-Election

Facing a worsening security situation in Afghanistan, as well as rapidly approaching elections in that country, the Obama Administration is touting a new, broad approach to winning the fight against insurgent groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

AFGHANISTAN-US: Mission Essential, Translators Expendable

Basir "Steve" Ahmed was returning from a bomb-clearing mission in Khogyani district in northeastern Afghanistan when a suicide bomber blew up an explosive-filled vehicle nearby. The blast flipped the military armoured truck Ahmed was riding in three or four times, and filled it with smoke. The Afghan translator had been accompanying the 927th Engineer Company near the Pakistan border on that October day in 2008 that would forever change his life.

RIGHTS-SAUDI ARABIA: Indefinite Detention in the Name of Counterterrorism

Human rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of unlawfully detaining thousands of people without trial or conviction under its counterterrorism programme since 2003.

RIGHTS: Obama Seeks to Block Release of Abuse Photos

The United States Supreme Court will hear the U.S. government’s appeal on a lower court ruling requiring the release of photos showing the abuse of prisoners held in overseas facilities.

RIGHTS: Big Powers Faulted for Abuse of Geneva Conventions

When human rights groups accused the United States of violating the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners-of-war (PoWs) in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration of former President George W. Bush either displayed arrogance or feigned ignorance of the implications of abusing humanitarian laws.

POLITICS: Pakistanis See U.S. as Biggest Threat

A survey commissioned by Al Jazeera in Pakistan has revealed a widespread disenchantment with the United States for interfering with what most people consider internal Pakistani affairs.

POLITICS: Rights Groups Appeal For UN Investigation of Rendition

Charging that the U.S. government was complicit in the forced disappearance of an influential Muslim scholar four years ago, human rights groups in the U.S., the U.K., and Switzerland have asked the U.N. to investigate.

POLITICS: U.S. Officials Protect Pak Military on Aid to Taliban

Despite evidence implicating the current Pakistani Army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, in a major military assistance program for the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan over the past few years, senior officials of the Barack Obama administration persuaded Congress to extend military assistance to Pakistan for five years without any assurance that the Pakistani assistance to the Taliban had ended.

RIGHTS-US: Jawad Case Uncertain Despite Release Order

One of Guantanamo's youngest prisoners, ordered by a federal judge to be released after almost seven years in detention because his "confession" was obtained through torture, may face further hurdles before being set free.

POLITICS: U.N. Calls for "Green Zone" in Strife-Torn Somalia

Somalia, a perpetually violence-prone country described as one of the world's failed states, may go the way of Iraq.

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.

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.

RIGHTS-ETHIOPIA: Fears Over New Anti-Terror Law

A little over 18 years ago, when the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power, people were so eager to exercise democracy that even children started to challenge their parents saying "this is my democratic right". Perhaps it was too good to last.