U.S.: Islamist Govts Not the Enemy, Say Mideast Experts

Scores of Middle East and democracy experts released an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday asking him to focus more of his foreign policy efforts at making reforms in the region, including boosting human rights.

POLITICS-CHINA: Row Over Tibet Escalates

China has sealed off Tibet with troops and demanded that the international community recognise the legitimacy of Beijing's historical claims over the Himalayan plateau, escalating a row over its policies there.

RIGHTS-US: Profiling Still Plagues Muslim Communities

On the heels of a recent poll that found that American Muslims experience emotional turbulence due to the stereotypes and suspicion of Islam since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, two major Muslim-American organisations issued scathing indictments of the tactics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Moves to Scrap Hated Security Laws in Kashmir

As political parties in Indian Kashmir debate the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the insurgency-hit state, civil rights activists hope that this will fructify into a withdrawal of the sweeping powers given to armed forces in this state since 1990.

U.S.: Military Dominance in Mideast Proven a Costly Myth

The arguments for maintaining a major U.S. combat force in Iraq at least through 2011, escalating U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and assuming a confrontational stance toward Iran appear to assume that the United States remains the dominant military power in the region.

POLITICS-US: Senate Committee Weighs “Truth Commission”

In a preview of the heated divisions likely be triggered by the formation of a "truth commission" to investigate detainee interrogation, warrantless wiretapping and other alleged violations during the administration of President George W. Bush, witnesses before a Senate committee Wednesday characterised such a body as either a "profoundly bad idea" or "critically important to avoiding the mistakes of the past."

RIGHTS-US: Lawsuits Challenge Charity Blacklisting

In two court cases that could test the limits of the Barack Obama administration’s executive authority as well as its commitment to transparency, human rights lawyers are challenging the government’s right to use information obtained through warrantless wiretapping as evidence and to shut down charitable organisations without allowing them to defend themselves.

SOUTH ASIA: Terrorists Aim for Destabilisation, Media Attention

South Asia seems to be caught in a vortex of violence as the countries that form this region - from Sri Lanka at the southern-most tip, Bangladesh to the east, Nepal crowning the north, Pakistan along the west and India in the middle - deal with internal nightmares that their governments routinely blame on neighbours.

RIGHTS-US: El-Marri Lawyers Seek Supreme Court Review

Lawyers for imprisoned "enemy combatant" Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri are vowing to press the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case even though al-Marri was suddenly transferred to the civilian justice system after more than five years in solitary confinement in a military brig.

KOREAS: ‘Missile Rattling Won’t Work’

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned leaders in North Korea on Sunday that it would be counterproductive for Pyongyang to pursue a path involving the development of missiles that threaten its neighbours.

POLITICS: Dutch Foe of Islam Ignores US Allies' Far Right Ties

The fiercely anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders has been traveling through the U.S. this week on a highly-publicised trip to meet with politicians, promote his controversial film ‘Fitna’, and raise money for his legal defence back home.

RIGHTS: Britain Admits Complicity in U.S. Rendition

In a stunning reversal, Britain’s government admitted Wednesday that it participated in the ‘extraordinary rendition’ to Afghanistan of two terror suspects captured in Iraq.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Court Ruling May Deepen Political Crisis

The political chasm in crisis-riddled Pakistan has deepened after a Supreme Court ruling barred from political office opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab - the country's most populous and powerful province.

PAKISTAN: Time Running Out to Restore Stability – U.S. Report

The United States and its allies must act urgently to prevent Pakistan - the only predominantly Muslim nation with nuclear weapons - from descending into a spiral of economic, security, and political crises, according to a new report released here by an influential think tank.

POLITICS: Many Muslims Reject Terror Tactics, Back Some Goals

Strong majorities of people in predominantly Muslim countries reject terrorism but support key goals of Al Qaeda, notably expelling U.S. military forces from the Islamic world, according to a major new study of public opinion in seven nations and the Palestinian territories released here Wednesday.

RIGHTS-US: What About Bagram?

While human rights and legal advocacy groups applauded President Barack Obama’s decision to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year, many immediately raised another thorny question: "What about Bagram?"

U.S.: Report Contradicts Govt Claims of “Humane” Detention

A leading human rights organisation charges that contrary to recent U.S. government reports that found prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba being treated humanely, they are in fact "deteriorating at a rapid rate" due to "harsh conditions that continue to this day, despite a few cosmetic changes to their routines."

CHILE: Gov’t Unleashes Anti-Terror Law on Mapuche Activist

"They burst in aiming machine guns at us. They found him in the hallway, they grabbed him by the hair, they threw him on the floor and they beat him up," Ida Huenulef told IPS, describing the arrest of her son Miguel, the first indigenous Mapuche activist to be charged under the Anti-Terrorist Law by the government of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Peace Deal With Taliban Setback For Women

The ceasefire agreement reached by the provincial government in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Taliban on Feb.16, involving implementation of shariah (Islamic law), is being seen as a setback for women’s rights in the area bordering Afghanistan.

Q&A: Fighting "the Dark Side of Globalised Society" *

Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, known for prosecuting alleged tyrants, terrorists and perpetrators of corruption, believes that progress toward a global justice system began in 1996, with the trials in Madrid of Argentine and Chilean torturers, and especially with the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in October 1998.

MIDEAST: Human Rights Defenders Under Siege

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama must take a leadership position in championing human rights in the Middle East and North Africa by using U.S. economic and trade leverage and confronting the growing global threat of authoritarianism being promoted by Arab regimes, advocates say.