U.S.: Obama Restores U.S. Intl Image to Pre-Bush Era

President Barack Obama has restored Washington's image virtually everywhere around the world close to the levels it enjoyed before former President George W. Bush took power in 2001, according to a major new international survey released here Thursday by the Pew Global Attitudes Project (GAP).

UGANDA: Rights Group Protests Indefinite Detentions

A prominent human rights group is demanding the release or trials of five Ugandan detainees held by military intelligence for up to 16 months.

CANADA: Afghanistan Exit Could Bring Escalated Air War

Amid reports that the Barack Obama administration is quietly lobbying the Conservative government in Ottawa to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan's Kandahar province beyond 2011, Stephen Harper is finding himself in an increasingly awkward dilemma.

Q&A: “Too Many People Don’t Want the Truth on CIA Flights to Come Out”

Throughout her varied career as a political leader in Portugal, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and ambassador, Ana Gomes has been a distinguished and tireless fighter for what she defines as "just causes." The target of her criticism now is the shelving of an investigation in her country into secret CIA rendition flights.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Group Seeks Probe of Mass Graves

A prominent human rights group is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate why the administration of former President George W. Bush blocked three different probes into war crimes in Afghanistan where as many as 2,000 surrendered Taliban fighters were reportedly suffocated in container trucks and then buried in a mass grave by Afghan forces operating jointly with U.S. forces.

YEMEN: Problems Go Far Beyond Narrow U.S. Focus on Terror

Yemen's recent reappearance on the U.S. radar due to its reputation as a safe haven for al Qaeda has brought more attention to the country of 23 million and its persistent underlying problems – the least of which may be terrorism.

RIGHTS-US: Acquittal No Guarantee of Freedom

Lawmakers and human rights advocates are questioning the assertion by the administration of President Barack Obama that Guantanamo terror suspects could be imprisoned indefinitely even if they are found not guilty by a U.S. court.

RIGHTS: Afghan Prisoners at U.S. Airbase in Legal Limbo

Following a loss in federal court, the organisation representing detainees held by the U.S. without charge at Bagram prison in Afghanistan called on the Barack Obama administration to "reverse the flawed policies of the previous Bush White House" and end the indefinite detention without trial of Afghan civilians held in U.S. custody.

RIGHTS-US: Muslim Groups Seek Reform of Charity Blacklisting

While President Barack Obama conceded in his speech in Cairo last month that U.S. rules on charitable giving "have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation", civil rights advocates are pressing the president to turn his words into action.

POLITICS: Negative Views of U.S. Persist Despite Faith in Obama

A new survey of global opinion reveals strong negative feelings toward U.S. foreign policy, even as an average of 61 percent of those polled have at least some confidence in President Barack Obama to make sound decisions.

RIGHTS: Muslims Under Scrutiny Despite Waning of ‘Terror War’

When the administration of President Barack Obama formally abandoned the longstanding U.S. "war on terror" - perceived by some as a codeword for "war against Islam" - there were hopes of a new relationship between the United States and the Muslim world after eight long years of political friction.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Four Thousand Marines to “Drink Lots of Tea”

After months of planning and putting pieces in order, aspects of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan are beginning to be concretely implemented – including a surge of troops and attempts to curtail the poppy trade that allegedly funds insurgents.

POLITICS: U.S. Uses False Taliban Aid Charge to Pressure Iran

The Barack Obama administration has given new prominence to a Bush administration charge that Iran is providing military training and assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, for which no evidence has ever been produced, and which has been discredited by data obtained by IPS from the Pentagon itself.

PAKISTAN: Public Backs Army’s Push Against Taliban, Poll Finds

Pakistani public opinion remains supportive of the military’s fight against the Pakistani Taliban, said a new poll released Wednesday. However, Pakistanis roundly reject the U.S. military campaign in the region.

RIGHTS: U.N. Revisits U.S. Policies on Racial Profiling

Millions of U.S. citizens continue to face discrimination at the hands of police and other law enforcement agencies just because they are not white, although the country's new leader in the White House is himself of African descent on his father's side.

POLITICS: U.N. Decries Aid Shortfall in Afghanistan

The United Nations, which has expressed disappointment over the slow disbursement of development aid to crisis-stricken Afghanistan, has hurled one of its biggest political insults at Western donors: threatening to turn to a U.S. philanthropist for financial assistance.

US-IRAQ: Troops Leave Cities, as Questions Remain

U.S. combat troops pulled out of most Iraqi cities Monday, a day before the Jun. 30 deadline for their withdrawal in accordance with the Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) ratified by the Iraqi parliament in November 2008.

PAKISTAN: U.S. Urged to Boost Emergency Aid to Displaced

Newly released research from experts and refugee advocates paints a clearer and perhaps surprising picture of the plight of Pakistan’s rapidly growing population of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

RIGHTS-US: Obama to Approve Indefinite Detentions

As President Barack Obama struggles with the political backlash from a Congress determined to keep Guantanamo terrorism suspects out of the U.S., his administration is reportedly preparing an executive order that would give him authority to hold prisoners indefinitely without trial, according to weekend media reports.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Bagram Detainees Treated “Worse Than Animals”

An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed that former detainees at the U.S. Bagram airbase in Afghanistan were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs.

RIGHTS: U.N. Asked to Probe CIA Rendition

Human rights groups are asking United Nations officials to investigate the case of an Italian citizen and victim of the "extraordinary rendition" programme of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency who is currently being held in a Moroccan prison based on a confession coerced from him through torture.