POLITICS: Errant Drone Attacks Spur Militants in Pakistan

The U.S. programme of drone aircraft strikes against higher-ranking officials of al Qaeda and allied militant organisations, which has been touted by proponents as having eliminated nine of the 20 top al Qaeda leaders, is actually weakening Pakistan’s defence against the insurgency of the Islamic militants there by killing large numbers of civilians based on faulty intelligence and discrediting the Pakistani military, according to data from the Pakistani government and interviews with senior analysts.

POLITICS-US: Help Wanted, Some Travel to Guantanamo…

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the Navy’s prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by next January, suspended military commission trials, and assigned Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct case-by-case reviews of the 241 prisoners still detained there to determine which ones should be prosecuted, released or sent to other countries.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: Officials Complicit In Kololo Torture

A branch of the Ugandan government that handles its anti-terrorism work is responsible for extended illegal detentions, torture, and other maltreatment at a facility based in a wealthy suburb of the country’s capitol, according to a lengthy report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) Wednesday in Kampala.

RIGHTS-US: ‘We Shouldn’t Depend on Others to Clean Up Our Mess’

Human rights organisations and legal scholars are applauding the efforts of Spanish lawyers in seeking the indictment of six former officials of the administration of President George W. Bush in connection with the torture of detainees at the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay prison.

RIGHTS-US: Medics and Interrogations Don’t Mix

Human rights advocates are expressing alarm about recent disclosures that medical professionals assisted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in harsh interrogations at secret prisons overseas and at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. It has also been brought to light that judges have ignored the mental health problems of government witnesses in terror-related trials.

POLITICS: Cleared of Terrorism, Canadian Stranded in Khartoum

The murky post-9/11 sharing of information between western security and intelligence agencies and Sudan's notorious human rights-abusing regime appear to be at the heart of a year-long marooning of Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik at his country's embassy in Khartoum.

RIGHTS: U.S. Judge Gives Bagram Prisoners Right to Appeal

In what could become an historic decision, a federal judge has ruled that non-Afghan citizens rendered by the U.S. to Bagram prison in Afghanistan have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

POLITICS: In Reversal, U.S. to Engage With Human Rights Council

The Barack Obama administration’s decision this week to seek a seat on the world’s top human rights body has affirmed the hopes of many activist groups that the United States will take a far more multilateral approach to diplomacy than in the past.

Q&A: "If I Were Chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council"

Appointed two months ago by the Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair to chair the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the body charged with producing analyses on key issues on behalf of all 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community, ret. Amb. Charles "Chas" Freeman withdrew his name in mid-March after a sustained campaign against the appointment by right-wing leaders of the so-called "Israel Lobby" concerned about his past criticism of Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbours, and particularly its treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

PAKISTAN: Another Terror Attack For TV Cameras

The brazen armed attack on a police academy near Lahore on Monday underlines the danger that the Pakistani state faces from militancy linked to the ‘war on terror', but with historic roots in the earlier Afghan war of liberation from Soviet occupation, or ‘jihad' against ‘God-less communists'.

CAMBODIA: Trial of Khmer Rouge Leader Starts Healing Process

Om Chantha,69, says she has waited far too long before finally seeing, with her own eyes, Khmer Rouge leader Duch face trial for torture, crimes against humanity and murder.

Q&A: ‘Khmer Rouge Trials Important for All Humanity’

Theary Seng, orphaned by the Khmer Rouge, believes in the invisible bonds that suffering weaves among people. She calls it the "fellowship of suffering".

PAKISTAN: Under Siege by Taliban

Authorities in Pakistan have vowed to deal sternly with Taliban militants who have this month mounted a series of deadly attacks apparently aimed at weakening this country that has close links with neighbouring Afghanistan.

POLITICS-US: Let Spy Laws Fade into the Sunset, Group Urges

One of the nation’s leading legal rights groups is calling on the U.S. Congress to make major changes in the USA Patriot Act to reverse parts of the hurriedly passed law that have been found unconstitutional or have been abused to collect information on innocent people.

CAMBODIA: Khmer Rouge Trials May Expose US, China

Limits placed on a United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in prosecuting surviving leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime may not prevent revelations about international actors linked to Cambodia's dark period.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Khmer Rouge Custodial Torture Exposed

On a recent morning, tourists who visited a former high school in this city, turned into an infamous torture chamber during the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge regime in the mid-1970s, were in for a surprise – the presence of a man who lived to tell the tale.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Pondering Risks Covering Conflict, Crime, Corruption

The main issue before the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) meeting over the weekend in the central Punjab city of Faisalabad is the threat faced by journalists in this conflict-ridden South Asian country.

POLITICS-US: Some Strategists Cast Doubt on Afghan War Rationale

The argument for deeper U.S. military commitment to the Afghan War invoked by President Barack Obama in his first major policy statement on Afghanistan and Pakistan Friday - that al Qaeda must be denied a safe haven in Afghanistan - has not been subjected to public debate in Washington.

JAPAN: Tensions Rise Over North Korean Rocket

Japan’s Self-Defence Forces (SDF) have been readied to shoot down a North Korean satellite-fitted rocket if it disintegrates or veers over its territories early next month.

U.S.: Obama Affirms New Focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan

In what marks a significant escalation in U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan, President Barack Obama Friday outlined what he called a "comprehensive, new strategy" for the two countries to fight al Qaeda and its local allies.

US: Freezing Out Hamas No Longer Viable, Say Policy Heavyweights

A new report from a New York-based think tank and delivered to U.S. President Barack Obama by a signatory who is also a current adviser recommends that Washington forcefully reinsert itself into the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, calling for "a more pragmatic approach to Hamas."