A Kuwaiti subcontractor to major US military contractor KBR has been holding around 1,000 men from South Asia in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport for months without pay or employment. The workers staged a recent protest march outside the compound to...
Maliki, Talabani Escalate Row Over Militias
Two weeks ago, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and both Vice Presidents Tareq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdel Mahdi issued a statement demanding that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suspend the so-called Support Councils. Today, Maliki announced that he will refuse the...
German General: Afghan Police Training a ‘Miserable Failure’
Germany's military commitment to the NATO mission in Afghanistan is focused almost exclusively on training Afghanistan's floundering police force, but is having very little success. So little success in fact that General Hans-Christoph Ammon has condemned the training...
At Least 30 Reported Killed in Mohmand Strikes
Pakistani fighter planes and helicopter gunships attacked multiple locations suspected of being militant hideouts in Mohmand Agency today, with military officials saying "25 to 30 militants were killed and many wounded" in the attacks. Other sources however said that...
Retired Generals Press Obama to End Torture
A group of retired US Generals and Admirals, led by former CENTCOM commander General Joseph Hoar, met with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and other senior members of the incoming administration's transition team today, presenting a laundry list of changes they'd like...
US Won’t Participate as Cluster Bomb Ban Signed
Most of the world's nations met today in Oslo, Norway to sign a treaty banning the use, stockpile, transfer, and manufacture of cluster munitions. Among those agreeing to the ban were most NATO members, including Britain, France, Germany, and Australia. Conspicuously...
Over US Objections, NATO Resumes Contacts with Russia
NATO foreign ministers led by Germany managed to forestall fast-track membership for Georgia and Ukraine, and likewise reached an agreement to resume limited ties with Russia. The move was described as "conditional and graduated re-engagement" by NATO Secretary...
Obama Appointee Adds to Mixed Signals on Gitmo
President-elect Barack Obama has added to growing discomfort about the seriousness with which he is approaching his pledge to close the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay by selecting Eric Holder to be the attorney general for his incoming administration. Though in...
Pakistan Sees Internal Rapprochement as India Tensions Linger
Both India and Pakistan seem to be making some effort to curb what in the first days after last week's Mumbai attacks seemed a growing risk of war. Both sides have continued to assert that their nations' respective militaries are prepared to defend themselves, but...
Victory for Protesters as Thai Court Ousts Ruling Party
After a multi-week standoff with thousands of protesters in Bangkok stranded over 100,000 travelers by occupying the capital's airports, what the protesters had been calling the "last battle" to oust the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has ended in...