There are 846 articles

  • UN: DR Congo troops committing rape

    Government soldiers in the DR Congo have attacked and raped women in villages where rebels already committed mass rape this summer, a high-level UN official has said. UN peacekeepers in the Walikale territory have reported that army troops are committing "rapes, killings and lootings," Margot Wallstrom, the special representative for sexual.. More

  • An education in inequality

    Expressing his support for the controversial loyalty oath bill - legislation that will require non-Jews to pledge allegiance to Israel "as a Jewish and democratic state" - Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, remarked: "Zionism established an exemplary national state, a state that balances between the national needs of our.. More

  • US military suicide rates surge

    For John Helfert, the problems started with the mortar shells screaming into the Abu Ghraib prison compound, the explosions sending furious shock waves. "You don't feel like there is any place to go," said Helfert, then a Marine lance corporal in an infantry unit at the infamous prison. "You are sitting in a building or a tower, not.. More

  • UN warns of global refugee crisis

    Conflicts are leading to new era of near permanent refugee populations, the head of the United Nation's refugee agency has said. Antonio Guterres also said rich countries are only willing to take a fraction of those forced to flee by drawn-out warfare, especially in Afghanistan and Somalia. "As a result of never-ending conflicts, we are witnessing.. More

  • Remembering the second intifada

    Ten years ago, Ariel Sharon marched on the symbolic heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, flanked by a 1,000-strong security force, and invoked one of the most famous phrases in Israeli history. "The Temple Mount is in our hands," he said, reiterating the radio broadcast from June 1967, when Israeli forces overran Jerusalem and occupied.. More

  • Palestinians and the 'Jewish state'

    Avigdor Lieberman is at it again. The right-wing Israeli foreign minister wants the Palestinian Authority (PA) to effectively accept the expulsion of Palestinian-Israelis (or Israeli-Arabs as they are known inside Israel) as part of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Speaking to a government committee on Sunday, Lieberman said that the guiding.. More

  • Pakistan agriculture could take up 2 yrs to start flood recovery

    Pakistan's agriculture industry -- a pillar of the economy -- could take up to two years to start recovering from floods, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Monday. ADB and the World Bank are assessing the damage caused by one of Pakistan's worst natural disasters. Philip Erquiaga, director general of ADB's private sector operations, said the.. More

  • 'Rampant abuse in Iraq jails'

    Amnesty International has said that tens of thousands of detainees are being held without trial in Iraqi prisons. In a new report, Amnesty said the prisoners face violent and psychological abuse, as well as other forms of mistreatment. Amnesty said on Monday it believes that around 30,000 people are held in Iraqi jails, noting the case of several who.. More

  • US soldier 'kept Afghan body parts'

    At least two of the five US soldiers charged in the deaths of three Afghan civilians had kept body parts taken from Afghan corpses and threatened subordinates, according to new documents released by the US army. Five soldiers - Calvin Gibbs, Adam Winfield, Jeremy Morlock and Michael Wagon, Andrew Holmes - have been charged with premeditated murder... More

  • UN 'failed' DR Congo rape victims

    UN troops failed 242 women and children who suffered a mass rape attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a top UN peacekeeping official has said. Congo hosts the largest and most costly UN peacekeeping mission in the world, but the mass rape attacks happened just 30km from a UN base some time between July 30 and August 3 in the North.. More

  • Crimean Tatars fear for future

    Ukraine's Muslim minority say anti-Tatar propaganda increasing under pro-Russian government. "I've already been here for 960 days, and today is the 961st," said the weather-beaten Tatar man, squinting beneath the powerful Crimean sun. Seydamet Smailov has spent almost three years living alone in a dilapidated cabin by the side of a busy.. More

  • 'The tears have dried up'

    Hungry and thirsty, the survivors of the Pakistan floods wait in sodden tents for aid to get through, struggling to come to terms with the events of recent days. In Nowshera, a culturally traditional part of Pakistan, women who do not normally mix with males outside their family must now share scant sanitation facilities with thousands of men. Mothers.. More

  • Report: Karzai aide paid by CIA

    An aide to the Afghan president at the center of a corruption probe is being paid the Central Intelligence Agency, The New York Times has reported, citing Afghan and American officials. Mohammed Zia Salehi, chief of administration for the National Security Council, appears to have been on the CIA's payroll for many years, the US news organization quoted.. More

  • Israeli abuse pictures 'common'

    Israeli soldiers are routinely taking degrading photographs of dead and captured Palestinians and posting them on the internet, human rights groups have said. The claims come a day after the Israeli military attempted to quell controversy over photographs showing a female soldier posing provocatively with blindfolded Palestinian detainees. The Israeli.. More

  • Afghan civilian toll up by a third

    The number of civilians killed or wounded in Afghanistan has reportedly soared by 31 per cent in the first six months of this year. More than 1,200 Afghans were killed and almost 2,000 injured in the first six months of the year, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on Tuesday in its mid-year report. "The human cost of this.. More