News stories by Charles Fromm, page 2

The administration of President Barack Obama hopes to resume U.S. training of an elite Indonesian military unit whose members have been convicted of gross human rights abuses in East Timor and elsewhere in the sprawling archipelago.

U.S. officials expressed concern here Wednesday that the return of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, after a three-month stay in a Saudi hospital, could destabilise the oil-rich West African country.

The United States needs to take on a more aggressive presence in peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, according to a major report published earlier this month by the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Amid growing European discontent over the war in Afghanistan, the head of U.S. and NATO forces apologised Monday for an air strike that killed at least 27 civilians in the central part of the country Sunday.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Thursday in the White House, raising objections from China and adding to existing U.S.-China tensions over Taiwan arms sales, internet censorship and hacking, tariffs on Chinese tyres and calls for Beijing to readjust its currency.

After months of delay, the administration of President Barack Obama is taking major steps engage the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of a broader regional strategy designed in major part to isolate Iran, escalate the fight against al Qaeda and other radical Sunni groups, and encourage peace talks with Israel.

The capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last week in a joint operation conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) represents the most important Taliban leader to be taken into custody since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

A report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on press freedom around the world in 2009 depicts an especially gloomy situation in the Middle East and North Africa, where authorities continue to use repressive measures to muzzle journalists.

On Thursday, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a coalition of international journalists, writers and publishers launched a campaign calling for the release of their colleagues imprisoned following disputed presidential elections last year in Iran.

The Iraqi government has ordered hundreds of private security contractors who previously worked for Blackwater Worldwide or its subsidiaries to leave the country within seven days or risk arrest for visa violations, Iraq's interior minister said Wednesday.