The Pakistani government recently announced a truce with the Taliban and allowed it to set up Islamic courts in the country's Swat Valley. Reports abound that girls will no longer be allowed to go to school, that brutal beatings are taking place for minor infractions, and the list goes on. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Pakistani government recently announced a truce with the Taliban and allowed it to set up Islamic courts in the country's Swat Valley. Reports abound that ...

It's not quite Slumdog's tale of rags to riches — more like shining maggots to Oscar gold. The path that led Japan to take its first Oscar in Best Foreign Language film at this week's Academy Awards started with the film's lead actor, Masahiro Motoki, contacting author Shinmon Aoki to quote a passage of his novel Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician in the actor's own travel diary. "Maggots are life, too," the passage, in the voice of the ...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new Defense Department report concludes that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, treats detainees humanely, to a department official with knowledge of the report. The conclusion comes in a Pentagon report prepared for President Obama, who has ordered the closing of the facility within a year. The Defense Department review also recommends that high- value and violent detainees be allowed to pray and have recreation time in groups of three, the official said. The ...

Tiger Woods will make his return to professional golf at next week's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona. Woods, who has been sidelined since last June after knee surgery, is the defending champion and also won the event in 2003 and 2004. Woods has returned to the PGA Tour soon after the birth of his second child. "Elin and our new son Charlie are doing great. I've enjoyed my time at home with the family and appreciate everyone's support ...

Slurred speech. Long pauses. Answering questions that weren't directed to him and blurting out others. For days, Japan's Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa's appearance, during which he appears to be drunk, has been painfully public on the YouTube video of a G7 press conference in Rome last week. Today, it finally cost him his job. At a press conference in Tokyo, he resigned from his cabinet post, delivering yet another blow to the administration of Prime Minister Taro Aso as he ...

Marxist guerrillas in southwest Colombia are believed to have killed a second group of Indians the rebels accused of helping the government, a state governor said. At least 10 Awa Indians were killed this week in Narino state, Gov. Navarro Wolff said late Wednesday. A day earlier, Wolff had reported that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC, had killed at least 17 Awa last week in another remote village. "I don't have more information than what ...