The hot wind swirls around the human bones and cracked skulls that litter the forsaken desert lands in Western Iraq.
Inside al Qaeda underground torture bunkers
Tag Archives: organization
Karzai rival claims widespread fraud in Afghan vote
Incumbent President Hamid Karzai’s chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, repeated his charges of widespread ballot fraud Monday and declared that Karzai "single-handedly put Afghanistan at risk by trying to rig the elections." As Afghanistan’s elections commission prepared to release preliminary voting results in the nation’s presidential race on Tuesday, Abdullah told CNN in an interview that his campaign had received what he described as credible reports of fraud in the southern provinces, where security was poor and turnout less than 10 percent. Abdullah said ballot boxes were stuffed with additional votes, with 90 percent of them going to Karzai. “This is stealing the elections and it will not be accepted,” Abdullah said in the interview
OAS team in Honduras to push for ousted leader’s return
A delegation of foreign ministers led by the Organization of American States’ secretary-general arrived Monday in Honduras in an effort to restore ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya to office. The delegation represents seven countries, including Canada, Mexico and Argentina. The organization has demanded that Zelaya, who was ousted June 28 in a military-led coup, be allowed to return to Honduras and resume his presidency
Gay men attacked, executed in Iraq, rights group says
Hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months, some by the nation’s security forces, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
Geneva Conventions ‘still relevant but better compliance needed’
As the defenders of a besieged Bosnian town prepared to retreat, the prisoners of war held captive in the local jail feared the worst. “The prisoners were saying, ‘If the town falls they will shoot us before they leave,'” recalls Charlotte Lindsey, a Red Cross field worker in the Balkans during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.
Human rights group notes ‘alarming spike’ in Iran executions
There was an "alarming spike" in the number of Iranian executions between the disputed June 12 presidential election and Wednesday’s inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term, Amnesty International reported Friday.
Programs to change gays to straights don’t work, report says
The American Psychological Association concluded Wednesday that there is little evidence that efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation from gay or lesbian to heterosexual are effective. In addition, the 138-page report — covering 87 peer-reviewed studies — said that such efforts may cause harm
Alleged rebel diary ties Ecuador president to FARC guerrillas
A diary reported to have come from a top Colombian guerrilla leader killed last year says key officials in Ecuador accepted money from the rebels and had connections with Mexican drug gangs.
Mexican authorities: More members of drug gang arrested
Six members of one of Mexico’s most active drug gangs, including someone accused of being the organization’s bookkeeper, were arrested this week, federal authorities said Wednesday. The arrests were the most recent in a string of high-level apprehensions targeting La Familia Michoacana; the cartel operates in its namesake state of Michoacan in southwest Mexico. Armando Quintero Guerra, who federal police said was in charge of the cartel’s expenses, was among six people arrested Tuesday, said Ramon Eduardo Pequeno, head of the anti-drug unit of the public security ministry
Study: Sunbeds as harmful as cigarettes
Sunbeds pose a similar cancer risk as cigarettes and asbestos, according to an international cancer research agency. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) had previously classified sunbeds as being a “probable” cause of cancer. However, the agency is now recommending that tanning machines should be moved to “the highest cancer risk category” and be labeled as “carcinogenic to humans”