U.S. troops call Afghan region 'Vietnam without napalm'
The men of Bravo Company have a bitter description for the irrigated swath of land along the Arghandab River where 10 members of their battalion have been killed and 30 have been wounded since the beginning of August. | 09/30/09 18:17:00 By - Hal Bernton
Chances are slim for breakthrough at Iran nuclear talks
Iran and six other nations will hold their first talks in 14 months Thursday in Geneva, but despite the participation of a senior U.S. diplomat, chances for a quick breakthrough appear bleak, especially after last week's revelation of a previously covert Iranian nuclear facility. It will be the first face-to-face talks with the Iranians for the Obama administration. | 09/30/09 17:50:00 By - Warren P. Strobel and Margaret Talev
EU finds Georgia started war, but Russia allowed atrocities
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was unjustified when he ordered a military incursion into breakaway South Ossetia last year, a European Union-commissioned report released Wednesday concludes. But Russia's untrue claims that Georgia had killed 2,000 civilians in its initial assault gave South Ossetian militias operating behind Russian lines an excuse to torture and execute Georgian prisoners amid a campaign of looting, burning and kidnapping, the report found. | 09/30/09 14:47:19 By - Tom Lasseter
Judge's order to release Kuwaiti detainee puts Obama in a bind
A year ago, an Air Force prosecutor swore out charges of conspiracy and providing material support to a terrorist organization against Fouad al Rabia, a 50-year-old Kuwaiti aviation engineer who was seized by U.S. forces in Afghanistan nearly eight years ago. Now a U.S. district court judge in Washington has ordered him released from the Guantanamo military prison, saying the government has presented no evidence of his guilt. | 09/30/09 10:34:00 By - Carol Rosenberg
'Keister bomb' probably won't become a new terror tactic
Al-Qaida's new method of delivering a deadly payload — in effect a plastic explosive suppository — would make security experts nervous, you might think. It is not easily spotted by conventional detectors. But it does have some who know their explosives busting a gut. | 09/30/09 07:21:17 By - Rick Montgomery
Costa Rica's Arias condemns Honduras' crackdown
Condemning the Honduran coup as a throwback to Latin America's ugly history, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said Tuesday that the country can't have free and fair elections until its de facto government lifts a repressive decree that silenced opposition media and forbade public gatherings. | 09/30/09 07:11:20 By - Frances Robles
Honduras' de facto president says he'll restore civil liberties
Facing condemnation abroad and criticism at home, interim President Roberto Micheletti reversed course Tuesday and said he'd withdraw a controversial measure that's suspended civil liberties in Honduras. | 09/29/09 18:59:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Costa Rican leader: Honduras promises to end crackdown
In an impassioned speech at the Americas Conference in Coral Gables, Fla., Tuesday, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said the de facto leader of Honduras has promised to remove harsh emergency measures his government imposed over the weekend amid a three-month political crisis. | 09/29/09 14:44:59 By - Jim Wyss
Not enough rain, not enough food in Guatemala
A record-breaking drought in Guatemala, plus higher food prices and a drop in remittances, is raising concerns that malnutrition could spread throughout the country. | 09/29/09 10:45:45 By - Trenton Daniel
Number of Cubans migrating to U.S. drops
A year ago, U.S. Coast Guard vessels plying the waters between Florida and Cuba were busy stopping dozens of Cuban migrants each and every month. Today, Coast Guard cutters are still operating in the Florida Straits — but Cuban migrants are harder to find.The reason behind the decline is anyone's guess, though many say the economy and enforcement may be big contributing factors. | 09/29/09 07:09:54 By - Alfonso Chardy
For a brigade in Afghanistan, danger's buried by the road
The man in the brown robe was digging in the desert sand. He was accompanied by three teenage boys and a donkey pulling a wooden cart. Was he scooping up sand to help make cement? Or was he trying to bury a roadside bomb? | 09/28/09 20:05:21 By - Hal Bernton
Honduran regime's crackdown on dissent condemned
The de facto government of Honduras that took power three months ago found itself increasingly isolated Monday after suspending basic civil rights and closing TV and radio stations allied with ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Governments ranging from the United States to Chile to France condemned the moves, as did the Organization of American States. | 09/28/09 09:05:20 By - Tyler Bridges
Economies in Latin America are starting to rebound
A year after the global financial crisis exploded, most Latin American countries are putting the tough times in the rearview mirror during the final three months of 2009. Brazil, the region's giant and the world's ninth largest economy, is leading the way, along with such other market-friendly countries as Peru, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Panama. | 09/28/09 07:11:23 By - Tyler Bridges
Several bills could chip away at Cuba embargo
When it comes to crafting Cuba policy, Congress has been in the back seat of late. The sweeping new rules released last month that loosen the 49-year-old U.S. embargo against the island came from the executive branch and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. As deep as the changes are, free-trade advocates want more. There are a handful of bills that have been filed that propose completely dismantling the embargo — though few believe the measures have the political backing to pass. | 09/28/09 07:02:25 By - Jim Wyss
Honduras' de facto government turns away diplomats
The government of de facto President Roberto Micheletti Sunday refused to allow four diplomats from the Washington-based Organization of American States to enter Honduras — including one from the U.S. — because of these countries' recent diplomatic moves against the small Central American nation. | 09/27/09 19:24:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Amid global crisis, Jamaica rethinks its business plan
The global financial crisis, which has battered Caribbean economies, is forcing Jamaica and other countries in the region to rethink how they do business. Although most Caribbean nations continue to wrestle with how to avert financial meltdown, Jamaica is mounting an aggressive campaign to help diversify its economy. | 09/27/09 14:37:16 By - Jacqueline Charles
U.S. releases 3 Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen, Ireland
Even as the White House left doubt on whether it would meet its own prison camps closure deadline, the Obama administration said Saturday it had freed three detainees from Guantánamo — one by order of a federal judge to Yemen, two others for new lives in Ireland. | 09/27/09 01:13:46 By - Carol Rosenberg
Pakistan attacks suggest Taliban undeterred by leader's death
Two powerful car bombs in Pakistan's troubled northwest Saturday announced the return of the country's Taliban, following a lull that accompanied the death of the terrorist movement's leader last month. At least 16 were killed and more than 150 wounded as explosions ripped through a police station in the town of Bannu, on the edge of the lawless tribal area, and the city center of provincial capital Peshawar. | 09/26/09 16:17:00 By - Saeed Shah
U.S. commander in Afghanistan submits request for more troops
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, hand-delivered his request for as many as 45,000 more troops to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Germany Friday and made his case for why he needs more forces to fight an increasingly unpopular war. | 09/25/09 19:42:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef
Global summit sets new direction, but misses chance for climate fix
Leaders of the world's most developed economies agreed late Friday to restrict runaway financial-sector executive pay, give emerging powers a bigger role in global institutions and create a new structure to promote global economic growth. | 09/25/09 19:21:00 By - Margaret Talev and Kevin G. Hall
Obama wins praise for orchestrating response to Iran
The revelation Friday that Iran has been building a secret nuclear facility capped a calculated effort by President Obama to assemble a unified international response to Iran's nuclear program ahead of a six-nation meeting next Thursday in Switzerland. | 09/25/09 18:38:00 By - Steven Thomma
Under prodding, Ahmadinejad invites inspection of nuclear site
On the defensive Friday from Western accusations about a secret uranium-enrichment facility, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran had acted legally, and he offered to open the site to international inspections. | 09/25/09 18:47:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
New Iran sanctions: Can U.S. bring other countries on board?
The U.S. and its allies Friday gave Iran two months to comply with demands to come clean on its expanding nuclear program, or face broader international sanctions, perhaps even targeting the country's gasoline imports. Experts don't expect Iran to change course, however, making it likely that President Barack Obama will have to convince other nations to do as the U.S. and adopt financial sanctions. | 09/25/09 17:54:00 By - Kevin G. Hall
Five U.S. troops die in multiple Afghan attacks
Five American service members were killed in southern Afghanistan Thursday, three of them when an improvised explosive device exploded, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force. | 09/25/09 16:52:00 By - Hal Bernton
Kansas doctor's side practice: working to overthrow Iran regime
Saeid Sajadi left Iran when he was 20 — nearly a quarter of a century ago — to escape the religious repression. He now operates three cosmetic medicine clinics in Kansas and Missouri and practices emergency medicine as well. Sajadi also probably logs several hundred air miles each week to help a group of Iranian dissidents devoted to toppling the regime. | 09/25/09 14:57:00 By - David Goldstein
China's Shanghai is New York on steroids
Stephen Wong said he was certain that someday the Porsche would be his. Never mind that he's an office clerk with a monthly salary that wouldn't pay for a set of tires for a Porsche 911. Never mind that the world is battling the worst recession in more than half a century. Forget all of that: This is Shanghai, New York with more bustle, an appetite for hyperbole that rivals Dubai's and a strut that would make Wall Street blush. | 09/25/09 14:54:00 By - Tom Lasseter
Disclosure of nuclear site puts heat on Iran
Western powers and Russia Friday turned up the heat on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program after the United States, France and Britain revealed that the Islamic Republic has secretly been building an underground facility that could be used to produce nuclear weapons fuel. | 09/25/09 08:35:24 By - Jonathan S. Landay, Margaret Talev and Warren P. Strobel
Arrests in death of Guatemala lawyer might link police-organized crime
The arrests of several current or former police officers in the death of prominent lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who accused Guatemala's president of killing him in a posthumously-released video, proves that many police are in bed with organized crime, analysts say. | 09/25/09 07:03:23 By - Ezra Fieser
Zelaya is running out of options, according to experts
If history is any indicator, Honduras' ousted president Manuel "Mel" Zelaya should get a change of clothes and a comfortable air mattress — his stint at the Brazilian Embassy here could go for a long spell. Political experts say Zelaya is running out of time and options. | 09/25/09 06:56:05 By - Frances Robles
What's a global economic summit without protests?
As leaders of the world's most developed nations met in Pittsburgh and inched closer to consensus on how best to restrict compensation packages for financial executives, masked protesters and police in armored vehicles clashed Thursday in what's become a familiar ritual at such meetings. | 09/24/09 20:07:00 By - Margaret Talev and Kevin G. Hall
U.S. says some Uighurs soon to leave Guantanamo
In a letter to the Supreme Court, the solicitor general said six Guantanamo detainees from China have accepted an offer from the Pacific island nation of Palau to resettle there. The court is considering whether to hear a case that could undercut the government's ability to hold prisoners that judges have ordered freed. | 09/24/09 20:01:46 By - Michael Doyle and Marisa Taylor
At U.N., Chavez compliments Obama — well, sort of
"It doesn't smell of sulfur here anymore . . . It's gone. No, it smells of something else. It smells of hope." With that phrase, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez paid President Barack Obama a backhanded — but major — compliment at the United Nations Thursday, while simultaneously questioning how much change Obama really represents. | 09/24/09 19:20:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
U.S. ignores doubts, pledges billions more for Pakistan
Ignoring questions about Pakistan's commitment to the war on terrorism, the Senate Thursday approved legislation to triple civilian financial aid to the country to $7.5 billion over five years. | 09/24/09 18:59:00 By - Saeed Shah
Afghan election's third-place vote-getter operates from tent
In the aftermath of the discredited Afghan elections, Western diplomats went to the Arg Palace to call on President Hamid Karzai, the apparent winner, and to a mansion on the west side of town to meet his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah. | 09/24/09 17:30:00 By - Hal Bernton
U.N. unanimously backs Obama on nuclear disarmament goal
With President Barack Obama in the chair at the U.N. Security Council, world powers Thursday endorsed his goal of a nuclear weapons-free world and pledged to strengthen the shaky international system for preventing the spread of nuclear arms. | 09/24/09 17:31:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Algerian seized with Abu Zubaydah loses habeas case
A federal judge has upheld as lawful the indefinite detention of an Algerian accused of being an al Qaeda bomb maker, raising the tally of U.S. government victories in Guantanamo habeas corpus lawsuits to eight. The government has lost in 30 other cases. Sufiyan Barhoumi, 36, was arrested in a Pakistan safe house along with Abu Zubaydah, the first CIA secret detainee to undergo waterboarding. | 09/24/09 14:59:43 By - Carol Rosenberg
Courts delays Guantanamo case of Saudi who alleges torture
Judge James Pohl, an Army colonel, set Jan. 11 for a hearing to decide which of the interrogations of Ahmed al Darbi, 34, would be heard by a military jury. Darbi's lawyer wants some 119 statements made by the captive excluded from any trial because, Darbi claims, U.S. forces got them through beatings, threats of rape, sleep and sensory deprivation, and sexual humiliation. | 09/24/09 12:25:22 By - Carol Rosenberg
Accused 9-11 mastermind says 'Allah' will defend him
Accused al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has bragged about his role in the Sept. 11 attacks, has asked to dismiss his ACLU lawyers and face his death-penalty case alone. | 09/24/09 07:17:10 By - Carol Rosenberg
Zelaya claims 'mercenaries' are using radiation to get him
In an interview, deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said quot;mercenaries" are torturing him with high-frequency radiation and that his throat is sore from poison case. He predicted that mercenaries were likely to storm the embassy where he's been holed up since Monday and assassinate him. Honduran officials scoffed at the allegations. | 09/23/09 21:56:00 By - Frances Robles
Gadhafi exceeds his 15 minutes of fame in U.N. debut
In a world of vain, brutal and unpredictable leaders, Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi has often been called quirky. He proved that Wednesday in his first U.N. speech. He tossed a copy of the United Nations charter aside, read from notes scrawled on yellow paper, and blew through the 15-minute time-limit set for speeches. In fact, at the one-hour mark, his first translator wore out. Gadahfi finally stopped talking after 96 minutes. | 09/23/09 19:50:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Web forums help Iraqi refugees adapt to America
After years of backlog, the United States is admitting Iraqis in record numbers — 17,000 were resettled this year, up from just 202 in 2006 — but the refugees are arriving in the midst of a dire economic crisis with few job prospects and only a few months of federal assistance before they're left to fend for themselves. | 09/23/09 16:27:00 By - Hannah Allam
At G-20 in Pittsburgh, expect large agenda, small results
As the leaders of the Group of 20 nations gather Thursday and Friday for an economic summit in Pittsburgh, they'll be testing two themes: How much appetite remains for coordinated economic decision-making among the world's leading and developing nations as the global crisis shifts into recovery mode? | 09/23/09 00:02:00 By - Margaret Talev and Kevin G. Hall
U.S. alone can't solve world's problems, Obama tells U.N.
Making his inaugural address to the U.N. General Assembly, President Barack Obama pressed world leaders to abandon reflexive anti-Americanism and join the U.S. in solving pressing global problems. Obama's remarks betrayed frustration that after eight months in office in which he's changed the tone and substance of policies he inherited from his predecessor, he's received little favor in return. | 09/23/09 00:40:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Undocumented Cuban immigrants tell of torture, beatings by human smugglers
Yurizan Gonzalez is one of several undocumented Cubans who, during the first two weeks of September, were tortured, beaten and threatened by a band of human smugglers. Some of his captors were Cubans from Miami and others were Mexican, according to the victims' descriptions given to El Nuevo Herald and Mexican officials. | 09/23/09 07:04:10 By - Gerardo Reyes
Curfew ordered in Honduras as ousted leader holes up
Ousted Honduran President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya prepared to spend a second night holed up in the Brazilian Embassy Tuesday as police fought running battles with his supporters and world leaders called for a peaceful solution to the dramatic standoff. | 09/22/09 23:14:00 By - Jim Wyss and Frances Robles
Obama's Mideast talks fall short of expectations
President Barack Obama, expressing impatience with stalled Middle East peace talks, told Israeli and Palestinian leaders Tuesday that "it is past time to talk about starting negotiations — it is time to move forward." His meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was the highest-level Middle East diplomacy of his presidency, but it fell short of expectations. | 09/22/09 18:48:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
China, U.S. promise bold steps to protect climate
Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao of China - the leaders of the two countries that emit the most greenhouse gases - pledged at a United Nations summit Tuesday that their countries would take bold actions to protect the Earth's future climate from irreversible damages. | 09/22/09 18:44:00 By - Warren P. Strobel and Renee Schoof
Trade embargo hasn't stopped Cuba from getting U.S. patents
Throughout 50 years of hostility across the Florida Straits, Havana has been obtaining U.S. patents — regularly, quietly and with little of the acrimony that has laced battles over trademarks such as Havana Club and Cohiba. Since 1975, Cubans have been awarded 74 patents, covering everything from harvest combines to pharmaceuticals and medical procedures. | 09/22/09 13:57:26 By - Juan O. Tamayo
Honduran troops rout Zelaya supporters outside embassy
Heavily armed government troops used tear gas and riot sticks Tuesday morning to dislodge supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya who'd spent the night outside Brazil's Embassy, where Zelaya has taken refuge. The move indicates that the de facto government intends to take a hard line after Zelaya's surprise return to the country. | 09/22/09 10:22:06 By - Tyler Bridges
Exiled former leader makes surprise return to Honduras
In a dramatic move that seemed like something out of a Hollywood movie, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya sneaked back into his country and turned up Monday at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital. | 09/21/09 18:52:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Alleged 9/11 mastermind given copy of My Lai massacre film
War court prosecutor Robert Swann said Monday that he'd arranged for alleged al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed to get a copy of Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley, a 1975 docudrama about an American Army officer held responsible for the murder of Vietnamese civilians by a squad of U.S. soldiers. | 09/21/09 20:29:30 By - Carol Rosenberg
More U.S. troops to Afghanistan? Obama's caught in a vise
With the military and Republicans publicly pressuring him to send more troops to Afghanistan soon and his own administration now deeply divided about how to proceed there, President Obama may be facing a defining moment of his presidency. He can escalate an unpopular and open-ended war and risk a backlash from his liberal base or refuse his commanders and risk being blamed for a military loss that could tar him and his party as weak on national security. | 09/21/09 19:37:00 By - Steven Thomma, Jonathan S. Landay and David Lightman
Guantanamo judge delays 9/11 cases; civilian trials pondered
The military judge overseeing the 9/11 mass murder case on Monday approved a 60-day delay in the proceedings to give the Obama administration time to decide whether to try the cases in U.S. civilian courts. On Sunday, the military's chief prosecutor said four U.S. attorneys in the United States are vying for the right to try the suspects. | 09/21/09 17:14:15 By - Carol Rosenberg
Exiled former leader makes surprise return to Honduras
In a dramatic move that seemed like something out of a Hollywood movie, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya sneaked back into his country and turned up Monday at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital. | 09/21/09 16:44:00 By - Tyler Bridges
60 years after revolution, ethnic tension still plagues China
China's leadership says it has calmed this city after almost 200 people were stabbed, bludgeoned or beaten to death in July riots and more violent protests this month forced the removal of top officials. | 09/21/09 00:35:00 By - Tom Lasseter
Latin America pioneers an anti-poverty program that works
Denise de Oliveira lost her job as a janitor in June when she had to stay home to care for her 13-year-old son, who had pneumonia. The 45-year-old single mother of four has kept food on the table, however, thanks to a government program that pays her family $70 per month. | 09/21/09 00:30:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Juanes' Havana concert was about more than music
Hundreds of thousands of revelers filled Havana's Plaza of the Revolution on Sunday for Juanes' historic mega-concert while in Miami, exiles watched on TV with mixed emotions. | 09/21/09 07:19:32 By - Lydia Martin and Jordan Levin
U.N. session will test whether Obama can deliver
President Barack Obama is about to make his first pilgrimage to the United Nations, where he'll be under scrutiny from fellow world leaders, much as he is domestically, to see whether he can deliver results as well as rhetoric. | 09/18/09 18:57:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Military growing impatient with Obama on Afghanistan
Six months after it announced its strategy for Afghanistan, the Obama administration is sending mixed signals about its objectives there and how many troops are needed to achieve them. | 09/18/09 18:48:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef
U.S. ambassador: Pakistan not backing U.S. goals on Taliban
Despite growing U.S. military losses in Afghanistan, Pakistan still refuses to target the extremist groups on its soil that are the biggest threat to the American-led mission there, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan told McClatchy. Pakistan's refusal to act in support of American goals is undermining the U.S. effort to deny al Qaida and other extremist groups a sanctuary in Afghanistan, she said. | 09/18/09 15:30:00 By - Saeed Shah
U.S. drops Hmong leader from newest Laos coup indictment
Hmong leader Vang Pao originally was among those indicted more than two years ago for allegedly plotting the violent overthrow of the communist regime in Laos. But a new indictment drops him from the list of those charged. A leader in the CIA battle in southeast Asia, Vang's indictment had brought widespread protest. | 09/18/09 14:32:24 By -
Cloud of suspicion hangs over Saudi prince's Cowboys-colored airplane
Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, one of the big-money suite holders in the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, finds himself mired in controversy over his private jet, which is painted in the colors of his beloved Cowboys. | 09/18/09 12:32:34 By - Maria Recio
Some Cubans questioning politics behind Juanes' Havana concert
To many people here in Cuba, the concert for peace, organized by Colombian rocker Juanes, is much more than an afternoon of music and good times. Many Cubans say it's a desperate attempt by a government losing its grasp on the hearts of its people, a government that this week finally began to show its inevitable human vulnerability when one of its aging, beloved leaders died. | 09/18/09 07:13:19 By - Miami Herald Staff Report
Yet another Kuwaiti at Guantanamo is ordered freed
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly late Thursday ordered the Obama administration to released Fouad al Rabia, a 50-year-old Kuwaiti aeronautics engineer who's been held at Guantanamo since 2002. He is the 30th detainee ordered released since prisoners at the U.S. detention center in Cuba won the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. civilian courts. | 09/17/09 23:35:37 By - Carol Rosenberg
Karzai says he'll accept outcome of election fraud probes
After winning 54.6 percent of the vote in the initial tally of a fraud-tainted election, President Hamid Karzai, said Thursday that he hoped to serve another five years but would accept the results of investigations that could force him into a runoff. | 09/17/09 18:06:00 By - Hal Bernton
Suicide bomber attacks Italian convoy in Kabul, killing at least 6
A powerful suicide bomb attack struck an Italian convoy of NATO soldiers on Thursday along a major roadway in the heart of Kabul. By early afternoon, the Afghan Defense Ministry reported 10 civilian deaths and more than 50 wounded, while officials at NATO's International Security Assistance Force reported that six service members had been killed but didn't identify their nationalities. | 09/17/09 08:47:11 By - Hal Bernton
White House issues yardsticks for success in Afghanistan
The White House Wednesday presented Congress with eight general yardsticks to measure success in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but didn't say how they'd help the administration determine how well U.S. policy in the region is working. | 09/16/09 20:23:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef
'Old friends' Cuba, China strengthen ties
Why is the world's third-largest economy spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Cuba, an impoverished island with few natural resources and a history of making things difficult for foreign investors? | 09/16/09 20:23:35 By - Tom Lasseter
U.S. military closes huge prison in southern Iraq
The U.S. military on Wednesday announced the closing of the sprawling Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, transferring $50 million in infrastructure and custody of all but 180 of the site's detainees to the Iraqi government. | 09/16/09 18:18:00 By - Hannah Allam
Can a Kosher Israeli wine become grand cru?
For the past six years, Yitzhak Cohen has supervised the grape harvest as Druze and Thai workers carefully separate the clusters from the vines and ready them for transport to his Ramot Naftali winery in northern Israel. | 09/16/09 17:49:00 By - Cliff Churgin
Karzai 'wins' 2-1, but fraud charges block victory claim
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission announced Wednesday that President Hamid Karzai won 54.6 percent of the vote in the national elections Aug. 20, but European Union election observers said that 1.5 million votes should be investigated under fraud standards the commission approved this summer. | 09/16/09 17:32:00 By - Hal Bernton
Iraqi baseball team finally in uniform, thanks to U.S. donors
Smiles broke out earlier this week as members of the Iraqi national baseball team tore into boxes filled with brand-new uniforms, courtesy of a Seattle-based company that donated the gear after a profile of the fledgling team by McClatchy and a national appeal by MSNBC. | 09/16/09 15:39:00 By - Laith Hammoudi
Fatal shootings of 14 Iraqis came after Blackwater was put on notice
Federal authorities had warned Blackwater that its private security employees had committed violent acts against innocent Iraqi civilians long before a 2007 shooting incident that killed at least 14 people, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in North Carolina. | 09/16/09 11:26:22 By - Fred Clasen-Kelly
U.N. commission accuses Israel, Hamas of Gaza war crimes
After a six-month investigation, the U.N.'s Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict has concluded there's evidence that Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed war crimes during Israel's recent military operations in Gaza. The 554-page report released Tuesday has detailed investigations into 36 incidents, including some that McClatchy reported previously. | 09/15/09 19:03:00 By - Cliff Churgin
Top U.S. officer: Afghan war 'probably' needs more troops
Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that the U.S. "probably" needs to send more troops to Afghanistan to support the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which he called a large part of the problem there. | 09/15/09 17:52:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef
U.N. panel orders recounts of 1 in 10 Afghan polling stations
Amid continuing charges of massive fraud in Afghanistan's presidential elections, a United Nations-backed complaints commission has ordered a recount of 10 percent of the 26,000 polling stations, U.N. officials said Tuesday. | 09/15/09 17:12:00 By - Hal Bernton
Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush freed, welcomed as hero
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at then-President Bush last year was freed from prison Tuesday, expressing no remorse for hurling what he called "my flower to the occupier." His colleagues slaughtered sheep and danced in celebration of his release. | 09/15/09 10:06:00 By - Hannah Allam
Obama signs Cuban trade embargo extension
President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of the law used to impose the trade embargo on Cuba, disappointing those who favored allowing the law to expire as a friendly nod to Havana while reassuring others who oppose easing the sanctions. | 09/15/09 06:59:15 By - Juan O. Tamayo
What Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at Bush had to say
Muntadhar al Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at former President Bush last year in an act of protest that gained international notoriety, was freed from an Iraqi prison Tuesday after nine months behind bars. He gave a news conference after his release that included a lengthy explanation for his actions. | 09/15/09 08:16:06 By -
Karzai rival warns: Vote fraud would doom U.S. involvement
Abdullah Abdullah, the leading challenger in Afghanistan's national elections, warned Monday that if President Hamid Karzai wins another term based on a fraudulent vote, the U.S.-led war against al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan will fail. | 09/14/09 17:03:00 By - Hal Bernton and Jonathan S. Landay
Argentine stuns Federer to take U.S. Open tennis title
Juan Martin del Potro, a soft-spoken 20-year-old Argentine, rallied from two sets down to stun the top-ranked Swiss Roger Federer 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 and win his first grand slam title. Federer was going for a sixth straight title here and had won 40 consecutive U.S. Open matches dating to 2003, when he lost to another Argentine, David Nalbandian. | 09/14/09 21:21:45 By - Michelle Kaufman
Terror group builds big base under Pakistani officials' noses
A Pakistani terrorist group that's allied with al Qaida and sends jihadists to Afghanistan to fight U.S. and government troops is building a huge new base in full view of the authorities in Pakistan's most heavily populated province. | 09/13/09 15:21:00 By - Saeed Shah
Cahir's widow receives Purple Heart, thanks from Marines
Bill Cahir, a Bellefonte, Pa., native, was a Penn State graduate who worked for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and former Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pa. He was a newspaper reporter. Then at 34, moved by 9/11, he joined the military and served two tours in Iraq then returned to run for Congress. He was called back to active service and was sent to Afghanistan, where he died last month. Sunday, he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. | 09/13/09 17:41:00 By - David Lightman
If Cuba embargo ended, U.S. businesses ready, but not island
While U.S. companies dream of a post-embargo Cuba, infrastructure woes, a lack of financing and Cuba's legal system may present challenges. | 09/13/09 08:57:58 By - Jim Wyss and John Dorschner
Deadly Afghan ambush shows perils of ill-supplied deployment
An ambush and nearly nine-hour battle in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan that left a sailor and three marines dead illustrated many of the toughest challenges U.S. forces face. Inadequate intelligence and a shortage of helicopters played major roles in the one of the deadliest days for U.S. trainers and Afghan troops. | 09/12/09 22:00:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
For reporter, no doubt: 'I'd use the rifle if I had to'
Last Tuesday, Jonathan S. Landay was embedded with a unit of Marine and Army trainers that walked into a carefully laid trap in Afghanistan. "As bullets zapped above and around us," Landay writes, "Fabayo grabbed the wounded Westbrook's M-4 and threw it to me. 'This is your rifle now,' he yelled. Then he turned to fire bursts from his own rifle." | 09/12/09 22:00:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Afghan election panel relaxed fraud rules to avoid runoff
Last week, after it determined that excluding questionable ballots in Afghanistan's August presidential election would force President Hamid Karzai into a runoff, the country's Independent Election Commission voted to allow them to be counted, according to commission and Western officials. This allowed hundreds of thousands of questionable ballots to be included in the results, according to a commission official. | 09/12/09 17:43:00 By - Hal Bernton and Jonathan S. Landay
Rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel
Two Katyusha rockets fired from southern Lebanon struck northern Israel Friday, near the city of Nahariya. There were no injuries or damage, Israeli police said. The Israeli military responded by firing between 12 and 15 artillery shells toward the suspected launching site. | 09/11/09 15:00:00 By - Cliff Churgin
From Moscow to Beijing: A journey from past to future
For passengers flying between Moscow and Beijing, the takeoff and landing are worlds apart. On one end is the Russian capital's shabby, dimly lighted Sheremetyevo airport, where the cigarette smoke can be thick and the seating scanty. At the other is Beijing's new $3.8 billion Terminal 3, a place of soaring glass walls, trickling fountains and an undulating roof meant to resemble a dragon in flight. | 09/11/09 14:34:00 By - Tom Lasseter
Despite continued economic growth, China fears labor unrest
The People's Republic of China is hoping that Long Chengxin keeps his job. The 55-year-old, who has closely cropped hair and the energy of a much younger man, uprooted his family of five from the southwestern province of Sichuan about a decade ago. After a series of odd jobs, he sells traditional Chinese medicine in a suburb of the capital. | 09/11/09 14:39:00 By - Tom Lasseter
Bill Clinton urges donors to fulfill promises to Haiti
Former President Bill Clinton has called on donor countries to make good on financial pledges to help Haiti recover from back-to-back storms last year. Since a donors conference in April, at which $760 million had been pledged, only $21 million has actually been disbursed, said Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti. | 09/11/09 07:07:46 By - Stewart Stogel
Obama's outreach to Iran could stall over nuclear issue
In its latest offer for talks with the leading world powers, Iran makes no promise to negotiate on its suspected nuclear weapons program, further complicating President Barack Obama's hopes of starting negotiations with Tehran before the end of the month, the State Department and European diplomats said Thursday. | 09/10/09 20:40:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Cousin had to retrieve Afghan reporter's body after raid
The death of Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi, killed by a volley of bullets as British commandos sought to free him and a New York Times colleague from insurgent kidnappers, was a source of anger for the Afghan press corps that's emerged in the eight years since Taliban rule ended. Journalists demanded an investigation into whether Taliban or British bullets killed Munadi and why his body was left behind after the raid. | 09/10/09 19:07:00 By - Hal Bernton
Another legacy of war: Iraqis losing faith in public schools
Six years ago, before the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam's dictatorship, the country didn't have a single private school. Over the past two years, the number has more than doubled, from 66 to 175. That trend says as much about diminishing respect for Iraq's public education system as it does about Iraqis' growing enthusiasm for the new schools. | 09/10/09 16:59:00 By - Sahar Issa
In Sudan, a fashion statement that spoke for all women
Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese woman who was arrested for wearing pants in violation of a so-called indecency law and went to jail this week in protest, spent less than 24 hours behind bars. By then, however, she'd already exposed the daily indignities that women suffer in one of the most authoritarian and male-dominated societies in Africa. | 09/10/09 16:28:00 By - Shashank Bengali
U.S. names dead from Tuesday's Afghan ambush
Navy medical corpsman James Layton of Riverbank, Calif., was giving first aid to wounded Marine Lt. Michael Johnson of Virginia Beach, Va., when both were killed by a volley of insurgent bullets. Marine Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick of Roswell, Ga., had just radioed that "If we leave this house, the people in the house in front of us will shoot us," when he was killed. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Edwin W. Johnson, Jr. of Columbus, Ga., died with them. | 09/10/09 16:14:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Mexico hijacker's weapon: a juice can with lights
The hijacking of an Aeromexico jetliner from the resort city of Cancun is not likely to hurt Mexico's already damaged safety reputation. The hijacker, a Bolivian national named Jose Flores, was motivated by neither money nor politics, but religious zeal and there was no reason for security officials to have flagged his "weapon." | 09/10/09 14:27:00 By - Sara Miller Llana
Truck bomb kills 20, inflames ethnic tensions in northern Iraq
A suicide truck bomber drove into a Kurdish village in northern Iraq before dawn Thursday, setting off an explosion that killed at least 20 people and wounded 30, local authorities said. | 09/10/09 11:01:00 By - Ali Abbas and Hannah Allam
U.N. update on Haiti cites 'cautious optimism' on future
Following up on a critical assessment made by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last February, the United Nations Security Council met in a special session Wednesday to hear a "status update" on the situation in Haiti. The common thread throughout the presentations was that Haiti could indeed be rebuilt, but only with cooperation between the Haitian government, the international community and the Haitian diaspora. | 09/10/09 07:07:49 By - Stewart Stogel
Algerians, freed from Guantanamo, still paying the price
In 2001, the Bosnian government, at the insistence of American officials, arrested six Algeria-born Bosnians and accused them of plotting to bomb the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. Despite a Bosnian investigation that found no evidence for the charge, the six were turned over to U.S. authorities who flew them to Guantanamo. Now, five of the six have been released. But their lives have hardly returned to normal. | 09/10/09 06:00:00 By - Seema Jilani, M.D.
U.S. says Iran soon may be able to build one nuclear bomb
U.S. ambassador Glyn Davies told the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program is nearing a "dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity." | 09/09/09 19:48:00 By - Warren P. Strobel
Uruguay will allow gay adoption, a first for Latin America
Uruguay, long-regarded as one of the most progressive countries in Latin America, set a standard for the region by allowing same-sex couples to adopt children with a bill that passed the Senate on Wednesday. While gay rights activists celebrated the passage of the bill, the Roman Catholic Church voiced its opposition. | 09/09/09 17:15:00 By - Federica Narancio
Rare plane hijacking adds to Mexico's sense of insecurity
The Aeromexico flight was seized in Cancun and flown to Mexico City, where all the passengers were let off. At least five suspects are in police custody. Local media reported they were Bolivian nationals threatening to blow up the aircraft if President Felipe Calderon did not speak with them. | 09/09/09 17:24:14 By - Sara Miller Llana
Woman survived Iraq bomb, but now she can't be found
A Baghdad police officer says that he escorted Shadia Abdulbaki away from Iraq's Foreign Ministry on Aug. 19, 10 minutes after a suicide bomber triggered a massive explosion that devastated the building and surrounding area. But she hasn't been seen since. Is she wandering the streets? Did she become an amnesiac? Did someone take her in? No one can say. | 09/09/09 15:43:00 By - Adam Ashton
Afghanistan isn't Vietnam, Washington state's Adam Smith warns
After returning from a three-day trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said Wednesday that the U.S. needs to remain engaged in that part of the world and warned that comparisons to Vietnam were too simplistic and that the region doesn't have to become a military quagmire as it has for others. | 09/09/09 13:53:17 By - Les Blumenthal
New photos emerge of alleged 9/11 plotter at Guantanamo
Pictures of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his nephew posing for Red Cross delegates this summer at Guantanamo turned up on the Web Wednesday, offering a rare glimpse into life inside the prison's secret Camp 7 just days ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The pictures were taken in July under an agreement that lets Red Cross delegates photograph detainees and send photos to family members. | 09/09/09 11:00:58 By - Carol Rosenberg
Interpreter killed in Afghan rescue expected to be released
New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was rescued by British commandos Wednesday but his interpreter Sultan Munadi was killed. Hours before the raid Munadi had called home to Kabul and told family members he thought he and Farrell'd be released in several days. The two had been taken hostage last Friday while reporting on the aftermath of a NATO air strike in Kunduz province. | 09/09/09 10:49:00 By - Hal Bernton and Hashim Shukoor
Families traveling to Cuba on the rise
Five months after Congress loosened strict Bush-era rules for family visits to Cuba, the numbers of travelers to the island is up dramatically, South Florida travel executives say. | 09/09/09 07:04:42 By - Alfonso Chardy and Rui Ferreira
Defying U.S., Honduras won't let Zelaya return as president
Last week, the U.S. tightened pressure on Honduras' de facto government by canceling $30 million in aid and revoking visas of political leaders who supported the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. Honduras responded by circulating reports that Zelaya had used public funds to keep horses, buy watches and jewelry and repair his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. | 09/08/09 19:42:00 By - Tyler Bridges
'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush
The Taliban were waiting as the U.S.-led patrol of American Marines and Afghan police approached the remote village of Ganjgal in far eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. When the fighting ended hours later, four U.S. Marines, eight Afghan troopers and an Afghan interpreter were dead. McClatchy's Jonathan S. Landay was with them. | 09/08/09 19:14:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
U.N. Afghan panel cites fraud in vote as Karzai pulls ahead
The suspected wide-scale fraud cited by the Electoral Complaints Commission could be a major setback for the Obama administration's hopes that the elections would strengthen Afghanistan's weak central government. The post-election drama unfolded as insurgents set an ambush that killed four U.S. Marines and a suicide bomber struck near the military gate of the Kabul airport. | 09/08/09 17:53:00 By - Hal Bernton
Maliki purge of top Iraqi security officials creates a storm
Critics of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said the dismissals of three senior Interior Ministry officials was an effort to weaken political rivals ahead of winter elections. Maliki allies, however, said the cause was serious security lapses revealed by the Aug. 19 car bombings that devastated the Iraqi Foreign Affairs and Finance ministries. | 09/08/09 16:14:00 By - Hannah Allam
Drunken video protest earns Cuban two years in jail
Juan Carlos Gonzalez Marcos was arrested and charged with "pre-criminal social endangerment'' after jumping into the frame of a video being filmed on the streets of Havana and shouting on camera that there was hunger in Cuba. | 09/08/09 14:13:22 By - Wilfredo Cancio Isla
Marines walk into insurgent 'trap' in Afghanistan; 4 die
The seven-hour battle took place around the remote hamlet of Gangigal after local elders invited the U.S. and Afghan forces for a meeting. American officers said there was no doubt that they'd walked into a trap. Seven Afghan troops and the Marine commander's interpreter also died. | 09/08/09 10:44:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Taliban-led insurgents strike Kabul airport
A suicide bomber blew up a car in front of a gate at the Kabul airport on Tuesday morning as the Taliban-led insurgency once again struck at the capital city. The attack occurred at the southern gate which is used by military as well as international contractors. | 09/08/09 08:14:12 By - Hal Bernton and Hashim Shukoor
Mother of Colombian girl allegedly raped by U.S. officer seeks justice
Olga Lucia Castillo could never bring to justice the men who raped her in Bogota when she was pregnant with her daughter. Twelve years later, she is putting up the fight of her life to have a U.S. Army officer and a Mexican-born contractor indicted because, according to her, they raped her daughter at the military base in Melgar. | 09/08/09 07:03:32 By - Gonzalo Guillen and Gerardo Reyes
Judges siding with detainees in Guantanamo habeas cases
Fifteen months after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuked the Bush administration by ruling that Guantanamo captives can sue for their freedom, civilian judges have ordered the release of 29 detainees and sided with the Defense Department only seven times. There are still scores of cases to be decided, but if the trend holds, it suggests that Guantanamo isn't holding just the "worst of the worst." | 09/07/09 21:24:21 By - Carol Rosenberg
Military leery of Afghanistan escalation with no clear goals
Military observers, soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan and some top Pentagon officials are warning that dispatching tens of thousands more soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan might not ensure success. The heart of the problem, they say, is that neither Barack Obama's White House nor the Pentagon has clearly defined America's mission in Afghanistan. | 09/07/09 15:20:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef, Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel
Anti-Americanism rises in Pakistan over U.S. motives
For weeks now, the Pakistani media have portrayed America, its military and defense contractors in the darkest of lights, all part of an apparent campaign of anti-American vilification that is sweeping the country and, according to some, is putting American lives at risk. There've been stories of under-cover American agents operating in the country, tales of a huge contingent of U.S. Marines planned to be stationed at the embassy, and reports of Blackwater private security personnel running amuck. | 09/07/09 15:20:00 By - Saeed Shah
Afghan President Karzai closer to winning in disputed election
Afghan President Hamid Karzai edged closer to a second term in office on Sunday as updated polling results gave him nearly enough votes to avoid a run-off election. | 09/06/09 15:41:00 By - Hal Bernton
Marking 60 years: China leaps from 19th to 21st century
Next month, the People's Republic of China turns 60. Mao, resting in his tomb in Tiananmen, wouldn't recognize it. The most rapid modernization in history has turned the "Weak Man of Asia" into an economic darling with the world's largest auto market and the most Internet users. | 09/06/09 12:58:04 By - David Klepper
U.S., Iraq cracking down on anti-Iran Kurdish guerrillas
A noose is tightening around the group that calls itself the last armed resistance to Iran's Islamic republic, but the Kalashnikov-carrying guerrillas are refusing to lay down their weapons and leave their camouflaged outposts in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. | 09/06/09 06:00:00 By - Adam Ashton
At some Afghan polling places, Karzai got every vote
Detailed polling records released by an Afghanistan election commission reveal numerous polling places in Kandahar Province where all the votes were delivered to a single candidate — incumbent President Hamid Karzai. The records bolster accusations of ballot-box stuffing against Karzai supporters during the Aug. 20 election. Of 66 polling sites in Kandahar Province, nine showed 100 percent of the votes going to Karzai. | 09/05/09 16:55:00 By - Hal Bernton
NATO to probe whether deadly Afghan airstrike killed civilians
A NATO air attack on two fuel tank trucks hijacked by Afghan insurgents that caused dozens of deaths reignited the controversy over civilian casualties, three onths after Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal issued new orders intended to dampen such controversies. The extent of civilian deahts is uncertain. The province's governor said about 90 people died, including about 30 civilians who had congregated about the trucks to obtain fuel. | 09/04/09 11:41:00 By - Hal Bernton and Hashim Shukoor
Chalabi aide: I went from White House to secret U.S. prisoner
Add to the strange saga of the Bush administration's love-hate relationship with Iraq's Ahmad Chalabi the tale pf Ali Feisal al Lami, who once met with U.S. officials in the White House, then spent nearly a year in secret U.S. detention, accused of helping Iranian-backed militants kidnap and kill American and British soldiers and contractors. During his captivity, Lami claims to have been quizzed by Army Gen. David Petraeus, then the top U.S. commander in Iraq. | 09/04/09 17:14:17 By - Hannah Allam
WTO rules Airbus got subsidies illegally, damaging Boeing
Boeing won a major victory Friday when the World Trade Organization ruled that its longtime rival, Airbus, has received billions of dollars in illegal subsidies from four European governments. While the ruling focused on subsidies for Airbus' superjumbo A380, it also found that aid provided by the Europeans benefited every model the company produced | 09/04/09 15:11:00 By - Les Blumenthal
Obama blasts Israeli plan to keep on building settlements
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to approve the construction of hundreds of new homes in the occupied West Bank before he considers a freeze on building new Jewish settlements. The homes would be in addition to 2,500 houses that already are under construction in the West Bank. | 09/04/09 13:34:00 By - Cliff Churgin
U.S. scholarships get Cuban college students expelled
The Cuban government has denied exit permits to about 30 Cuban college students who had been offered U.S. government-funded scholarships for academic programs at American academic institutions. | 09/04/09 11:45:27 By - Wilfredo Cancio Isla
NATO to probe whether deadly Afghan airstrike killed civilians
A NATO airstrike early Friday on two fuel tankers hijacked by insurgents caused dozens of deaths in the northern Kunduz province, where the Taliban have expanded their influence in recent months. | 09/04/09 09:44:12 By - Hal Bernton and Hashim Shukoor
Cuba travel and gift rules are officially changed
The federal rules regulating what gifts and how much cash can be sent to Cuba finally became official Thursday, five months after President Barack Obama announced a loosening of restrictions amid great fanfare. | 09/04/09 07:00:54 By - Frances Robles
Military leaders: U.S. effort in Afghanistan just beginning
Top Pentagon leaders Thursday insisted that despite an expected request for more American troops in Afghanistan, the U.S. isn't engaged in nation building there and that although violence is increasing, the military effort there is "only now beginning." | 09/03/09 19:54:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef
U.S. cuts off non-humanitarian aid to Honduras
The Obama administration Thursday ratcheted up the pressure on Honduras' coup-installed government to step down by cutting all non-humanitarian aid to the poor Central American country. | 09/03/09 19:20:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Assessing CIA culpability in detainee deaths will be tricky
With the appointment of special prosecutor John Durham, critics of the Bush administration's interrogation policies are hoping that the CIA's role in the alleged mistreatment of detainees finally will be revealed. | 09/03/09 18:29:00 By - Marisa Taylor and Warren P. Strobel
Not finding much love at home, Chavez courts autocratic allies
Stymied in trying to advance his anti-U.S. agenda in Latin America, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is tightening the screws at home — and touring friendly autocratic regimes abroad. | 09/03/09 17:05:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Forget Hollywood: Nigeria may be the world's cinematic future
Forget the slick cinematic tricks and big-money excesses of Hollywood; this is Nigeria's scrappy young movie industry, known to everyone here as Nollywood. The budgets are meager, the plotlines fantastical, the performances hammy and the breakneck shooting schedules an affront to logic and the elements. | 09/03/09 15:37:00 By - Shashank Bengali
U.S. soldier's immunity clouds 2007 Colombian rape case
The U.S. government has made little effort to investigate a U.S. army sergeant and a Mexican civil contractor implicated in Colombia in the raping of a 12-year-old girl in August 2007, according to an El Nuevo Herald investigation. | 09/03/09 07:04:23 By - Gerardo Reyes and Gonzalo Guillen
Despite brutal year, Mexico's Calderon remains popular
Historic levels of violence, the swine flu, dwindling oil production, an economic recession that is Mexico's worst in decades, and a devastating drought are but a few challenges this nation faces. | 09/02/09 19:41:00 By - Sara Miller Llana
Pentagon lawyers: First Amendment protects Al Qaida propaganda
Pentagon defense lawyers this week appealed the war crimes conviction of Osama bin Laden's media secretary at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on free speech grounds. They argued that filmmaker Ali Hamza al Bahlul of Yemen was simply exercising his First Amendment rights when he spliced together footage of fiery Osama bin Laden speeches into a recruiting film. | 09/02/09 19:30:02 By - Carol Rosenberg
Pakistani minister critical of Taliban injured in assassination attempt
Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Pakistan's religious affairs minister, narrowly escaped assassination Wednesday as gunmen ambushed his official car, shooting him and killing his driver.The highest-profile attack on a senior government official in recent years, it was likely to be the work of Islamic extremists. Kazmi is a moderate who's been critical of Pakistan's Taliban militants. | 09/02/09 07:25:51 By - Saeed Shah
Result in Afghan's fraud-ridden elections may take weeks
Afghanistan's election results are headed into weeks of limbo as a government commission investigates more than 600 complaints of ballot stuffing, intimidation and other allegations. | 09/02/09 18:40:00 By - Hal Bernton and Hashim Shukoor
Poll: Most Americans oppose more troops for Afghanistan
A majority of Americans think the country isn't winning the war in Afghanistan, and an even larger majority opposes sending more troops in an effort to turn things around, according to a new McClatchy/Ipsos poll. | 09/01/09 19:41:24 By - Steven Thomma
Uribe's flu reminds even presidents to wash their hands
As if the job weren't difficult enough, being a Latin American president suddenly has become more perilous. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has come down with swine flu. | 09/01/09 18:04:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Baghdad makes a comeback — on Iraqi TV
When actor Ayad al Ta'i filmed in Syria during the peak of Iraq's sectarian violence, when it was too dangerous for a TV star to stay in Baghdad, he knew that something was missing from nearly every scene he shot. | 09/01/09 15:50:00 By - Jenan Hussein and Adam Ashton
Cuban embargo's support eroding, according to poll
The 47-year-old Cuban embargo continues to divide exiles depending on their age and other factors, and long-standing support among some in the community might be eroding, a poll by Bendixen & Associates showed. | 09/01/09 07:02:32 By - Luisa Yanez
Pentagon worried about Obama's commitment to Afghanistan
The prospect that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal may ask for as many as 45,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan is fueling growing tension within President Barack Obama's administration over the U.S. commitment to the war there. | 08/31/09 19:29:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef
Iraq, Syria trade accusations in rift over bombings
A diplomatic standoff between Iraq and neighboring Syria escalated Monday, with Baghdad demanding the extradition of suspects in a deadly bombing and Damascus insisting that there's no evidence of Syrian involvement. | 08/31/09 16:57:00 By - Hannah Allam
Cambodia expels accused child molester to face U.S. charges
Jack Louis Sporich, a wealthy former engineer who prosecutors have said has been molesting children since he lived in Illinois in the 1960s, moved to Cambodia in 2006. Since then, Cambodian authorities had charged him with molesting at least three boys — charges that might carry a penalty of only three years in prison. Instead, Cambodia expelled him and he'll be taken into custody on federal charges when he arrives in Los Angeles this afternoon. | 08/31/09 15:27:26 By - Sam Stanton
A year after Mexico's massive anti-crime protests, few changes
One year ago, a rash of kidnappings throughout Mexico prompted tens of thousands to fill the streets to demand from the government safer streets and more honest cops, and from each other a more proactive citizenry. | 08/31/09 15:04:00 By - Sara Miller Llana
Suicide bomber kills 15 police in Pakistan's Swat region
It was the first major attack since the army announced it had taken the area back from the Taliban. The bomber detonated himself at a training session for a new community police force intended to provide security for an area that had been overrun by the Taliban. | 08/30/09 18:43:25 By - Saeed Shah
Taliban's growth in Afghanistan's north threatens to expand war
Taliban insurgents have taken over parts of two northern provinces from which they were driven in 2001, threatening to disrupt NATO's new supply route from Central Asia and expand a war that's largely been confined to Afghanistan's southern half, U.S. and Afghan officials said. | 08/28/09 14:26:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Toilet paper shortage hits Cuba
There's a shortage of toilet paper in Cuba and officials in Havana say it will not ease until the end of the year. The good news? Day-old copies of the Communist party's newspaper Granma, a traditional substitute, are available for less than a U.S. penny. | 08/27/09 06:21:46 By - Juan O. Tamayo
Was the Afghan election rigged, and where's the proof?
If a ballot box was stuffed but nobody saw it, did it happen? That's a crucial question as claims of fraud surrounding Afghanistan's presidential election last week continue to pour in. | 08/26/09 18:12:00 By - Ben Arnoldy
Prominent Shiite political leader dies in Iran
Abdul Aziz al Hakim, the leader of one of Iraq's dominant Shiite Muslim political parties and a renowned cleric who resisted Saddam Hussein's regime in exile for more than 20 years, died Wednesday in Tehran. | 08/26/09 10:35:00 By - Adam Ashton
Cuban agriculture turning to traditional methods in crisis
Cuba is going back as it looks forward, expanding its use of ox teams in agriculture to save on costly fuel for tractors while increasing production in the desperately needed food sector. | 08/26/09 07:05:07 By - Juan O. Tamayo
CIA sacked Baghdad station chief after deaths of 2 detainees
The CIA removed its station chief in Iraq and reorganized its operations there in late 2003 following "potentially very serious leadership lapses" that included the deaths of detainees in U.S. custody, according to a newly released document and former senior officials. | 08/25/09 19:44:01 By - Warren P. Strobel
U.S. deaths in Afghanistan headed for another record
With the death of four U.S. soldiers Tuesday, the U.S.-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan now has lost more troops this year than in all of 2008, and August is on track to be the deadliest month for American troops there since U.S. operations begain nearly eight years ago. The numbers reflect the rising pace of combat in Afghanistan and come as opinion polls show that a majority of Americans think the war in Afghanistan isn't worth the cost. | 08/25/09 18:57:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan S. Landay
Pakistani Taliban leader calls Obama 'our foremost enemy'
Pakistan's extremist Taliban movement acknowledged Tuesday that its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, had died in the aftermath of a U.S. drone missile attack early this month and confirmed that two men would replace him. One of the new leaders, Waliur Rehman, later issued threats against the West in a telephone interview with reporters. | 08/25/09 18:28:00 By - Saeed Shah
Tensions rise as Iraq blames Baathists in Syria for bombings
Iraq Tuesday demanded that Syria hand over two high-ranking Iraqi Baath Party officials following last week's bombing of two government ministries. Iraq later recalled its ambassador from Damascus for consultations, and Syria followed suit, withdrawing its envoy from Baghdad. | 08/25/09 17:36:00 By - Adam Ashton and Laith Hammoudi
With Maliki's party out, Iraq's Shiite coalition splits
The Shiite Muslim political alliance that's led Iraq since 2005 appears to be breaking apart, with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Dawa Party preparing to run for re-election independently of the other parties that had lifted him to power. | 08/24/09 16:15:00 By - Adam Ashton
Shackles and blindfold for freed detainee on his way home
A young Afghan held for six years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, rejoined his family in southern Kabul late Monday, ending an odyssey that came to symbolize many of the problems of the Bush administration's war on terror detention policies. Mohammed Jawad arrived in Afghanistan shackled and blindfolded, his lawyer said, but ended the day being hugged by relatives after meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He was ordered released by a U.S. judge. | 08/24/09 13:50:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay, Hashim Shukoor and Carol Rosenberg
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is no fan of golf
The hardline stand that President Hugo Chavez has taken against the 'bourgeois sport' of golf has led to the closing of many courses in Venezuela. | 08/24/09 07:03:40 By - Casto Ocando
Guantanamo prisoner detained as teen meets with Karzai
Mohammed Jawad's six-year imprisonment came to symbolize much of what was wrong with the Bush administration's war on terror policies. His confession to throwing a grenade that wounded two American soldiers was ultimately thrown out by a U.S. military judge as coerced by torture. A federal judge last month ordered the U.S. government to release him, saying that without the confession there was no evidence to hold him. His uncle told McClatchy today that no U.S. investigator ever came to talk to him, though his defense attorney came twice. Jawad may have been 14 years old when he was detained. | 08/24/09 05:59:18 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Carol Rosenberg
Nigerian amnesty plan for oil militants falls flat
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the plan during a visit to Nigeria earlier this month, in hopes of bringing some semblance of peace to a region that is a major U.S. source of foreign oil. But the delta's main militant group over the weekend dismissed the three-week-old plan as "a charade" and vowed to resume attacks after a ceasefire expires Sept. 15. | 08/23/09 16:56:00 By - Shashank Bengali
Is Pakistan's Taliban movement on the way out?
Pakistan's extremist Taliban movement is badly divided over who should be its new leader, and analysts and local tribesmen say the al Qaida-linked group may be in danger of crumbling. A wave of defections, surrenders, arrests and bloody infighting has severely weakened the movement since its founder, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed Aug. 5 in a U.S. missile strike. The announcement this weekend that Hakimullah Mehsud, a 28-year-old with a reputation as a hothead, would succeed him is likely to further widen the split. | 08/23/09 16:53:00 By - Saeed Shah
One-man play by U.N. official draws ire in Israel
The United Nations has never been especially beloved in Israel, where the international body is often viewed as biased and pro-Palestinian. Vandals in certain religious Jerusalem neighborhoods have been known even to deface U.N. cars by adding certain consonants around U.N. stickers to create a vulgar curse word | 08/23/09 15:42:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Hair salons once again the fashion for women in Iraq
Religious extremists ran most Iraqi hair stylists out of business and into exile two years ago, when violence reached its peak. Cutting hair was a forbidden vocation, especially when it was the hair of women who should only be seen by their husbands. But such extremism is on the retreat in Iraq today, despite lingering violence, and hair salons once again are doing a brisk business. | 08/23/09 15:04:00 By - Jenan Hussein
Observers cautious about declaring Afghan vote a success
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan's second-ever presidential election was marred by vote-rigging, voter intimidation and low turnout in many areas and should not be declared a success until the full extent of problems is known, election monitors and other experts said Saturday. | 08/22/09 17:14:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Observers cautious on calling Afghan election a success
Too much is unknown about the extent of vote-rigging, voter intimidation and low turnout in Thursday's presidential balloting to say now that the election was a fair one, observers and other experts said Saturday. They cautioned that the Obama administration's early declaration that the voting was a success risks endorsing a result that Afghans may not see as legitimate. | 08/22/09 16:51:56 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Bombing of Iraqi ministry hit nearby residents hard
When a car bomb exploded Wednesday outside Iraq's Foreign Ministry, roofs collapsed and heavy walls tumbled down in the adjoining neighborhood. Days later, residents are sleeping outside, some on carpets where their families gather as the sun goes down; many simply on the bare streets. | 08/22/09 15:02:00 By - Adam Ashton
Iran rulers' move to tighten grip shuts out dissenters
More than two months after a disputed presidential election threw Iran's ruling class into turmoil, the country's leaders are showing themselves increasingly unwilling to compromise with their critics, a trend analysts say could mean even tougher steps against would-be reformers in the future. | 08/21/09 16:27:00 By - Hannah Allam
Mexico goes after mother of cartel leader
The reputed head of the La Familia cartel, an increasingly notorious drug trafficking organization in Mexico, did not mince words in his threat: "If anybody attacks my father, my mother, my brothers, they're going to have to deal with me," Servando Gomez warned the government on local television last month. | 08/21/09 16:15:00 By - Sara Miller Llana
Baghdad security shakeup possible after bombings
Baghdad's mix of overlapping security agencies with murky authorities could be in line for a major makeover due to this week's deadly bombings at Iraq's Foreign and Finance ministries. | 08/21/09 16:05:00 By - Adam Ashton
Iraq 'sports city' to be designed by Kansas City architecture firm
A Kansas City architecture firm, treading where its competitors fear to go, has won a contract to design a $500 million "sports city" in Basra, Iraq. | 08/21/09 07:15:42 By - Kevin Collison
Nicaragua still feeling aftershocks of Honduran coup
The aftershocks from the military coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya on June 28 continue to rattle Nicaragua, where politicians are using the neighboring conflict as a proxy war to slug out their own internal disputes. | 08/21/09 07:07:48 By - Tim Rogers
Would-be Zelaya successor is Honduras coup's other victim
Elvin Santos, a 46-year-old construction company executive with a political pedigree and a beauty pageant wife, seemed a sure bet to win November's election and succeed Manuel Zelaya as Honduras' president. All bets are off, however, following the June 28 coup that deposed Zelaya. | 08/20/09 17:10:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Despite low turnout, Afghan vote declared a success
The Afghan government and the principal opposition candidate declared the country's second presidential election a success Thursday, despite strong indications that Taliban threats and attacks had kept voters at home in southern and eastern Afghanistan. | 08/20/09 17:30:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Hashim Shukoor
New bombings in Iraq kill 30 as Maliki moves to take control
The new blasts struck south of Baghdad, one day after a pair of bombings in central Baghdad killed at least 95. Iraqi authorities arrested 11 police and military officers in connection with Wednesday's attacks, though it wasn't clear if they were suspected of involvement or just bungling their jobs. The government more than doubled the estimate of the number of wounded Wednesday, to 1,203. | 08/20/09 13:40:00 By - Sahar Issa and Adam Ashton
Election turnout appears low in much of Afghanistan
Threats of violence and scattered Taliban attacks appeared to have suppressed voter turnout Thursday in eastern and southern areas of the country during Afghanistan's second presidential election, officials and residents said. Turnout was higher in western and northern regions, where tens of thousands of U.S.-led international troops are battling the Taliban. The government said eight Afghan soldiers, nine police officers and eight civilians died in Election Day violence. | 08/20/09 00:02:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Hashim Shukoor
Baghdad bombings question: Did U.S. draw back too fast?
Neither American officials in Washington nor Iraqi officials in Baghdad seem willing to entertain bringing U.S. troops back into the city, even though violence has risen since their withdrawal. Wednesday's bombings, which killed at least 95 and injured more than 500, came as Iraqi officials have been dismantling many of the security steps that had brought a dramatic drop in bloodshed to the Iraqi capital. | 08/19/09 18:56:00 By - Sahar Issa and Nancy A. Youssef
Afghan vote underway amid tension over Taliban threats
Protected by tens of thousands of U.S.-led international troops and Afghan security forces, Afghans voted Thursday for a new president for only the second time in their history in an election held under the threat of vote-rigging and the Taliban's vow to attack polling stations. Security was rigid across Kabul, with rifle-toting police manning numerous checkpoints and frisking drivers and passengers. | 08/19/09 17:55:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Hashim Shukoor
Pakistani VOA journalist released from U.S. detention
Immigration officials released a Voice of America journalist Wednesday after deciding he could apply to remain in the U.S. because of a "credible fear" of being tortured or persecuted in his native Pakistan, his attorney said. | 08/19/09 17:32:00 By - Marisa Taylor
Hamas moves against al Qaida-inspired extremists
Faced with eroding popular support and disenchantment among young Palestinians looking for alternatives, Hamas is moving forcefully to crush Islamic extremists with possible ties to al Qaida that threaten its hold on power in the Gaza Strip. | 08/19/09 16:26:00 By - Dion Nissenbaum
Bombs kill dozens on Baghdad's deadliest day in 18 months
Two trucks loaded with explosives blew up near Iraq's ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance on Wednesday, killing at least 95 people and wounding more than 500. The blast tore the facade off the Foreign Affairs Ministry and collapsed part of a bridge near the Finance Ministry. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki blamed Sunni extremists for the attacks, which appeared intended to shake confidence in his government before January's national elections. | 08/19/09 07:53:22 By - Adam Ashton
Asylum snafu? U.S. holds reporter who works for VOA
U.S. immigration officials questioned a journalist who works for the government's Voice of America broadcasting arm Tuesday to see if he could apply for asylum based on a "credible fear" of being tortured or persecuted in his native Pakistan. Rahman Bunairee, was detained when he arrived in the United States on a visa he obtained to work at Voice of America's headquarters in Washington, D.C. | 08/18/09 18:44:00 By - Marisa Taylor and Saeed Shah
Afghan vote carries big risk for U.S. fight against Taliban
Afghanistan's presidential election, set for Thursday amid violence, voter intimidation and expectations of fraud, holds considerable risks for the Obama administration's drive to gain the upper hand in the war against the Taliban, some Western and Afghan officials and experts warn. | 08/18/09 18:29:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
At White House, Mubarak urges speeding up Mideast peace talks
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak used a newfound welcome mat Tuesday at the White House to urge the United States to accelerate Mideast peace talks, skipping past temporary steps that he said have led nowhere and moving instead to a final negotiation about the status of Jerusalem, the status of refugees and borders. | 08/18/09 17:49:00 By - Steven Thomma
Violence and corruption shake a Moscow suburb
After journalist Mikhail Beketov printed a series of articles about the development in Khimki, a suburb of Russia, he was beaten to a bloody pulp. At least three journalists and one civic rights activist have been savagely beaten in Khimki since last year. The chain of attacks shows the depth of Russia's vast corruption problems. | 08/18/09 16:58:00 By - Tom Lasseter
Iraq's Anbar still reeling from war that cost jobs and lives
The rubble's gone from the explosions and bombs that tore up the commercial center of this western Iraqi city, but the jobs haven't returned. In fact, no commercial buildings have come back since Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar Province, saw some of the toughest fighting of the war | 08/18/09 15:48:00 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy
Inspired by fallen son, father completes book on Iraq
Staff Sgt. Darrell "Skip" Griffin Jr. wanted to give Americans a close-up view of his two tours of duty in Iraq, so they could see the blood and grit in the aftermath of an attack on a convoy, and feel his anxiety in watching the lives of ordinary Iraqis fall part in the crossfire between sectarian killers and the soldiers who hunted them. | 08/18/09 15:25:00 By - Adam Ashton
Nixon, Brazil dictator discussed overthrowing Castro, Allende
In 1971, President Richard Nixon and Brazil's military dictator discussed coordinating efforts to help Cubans and Chileans overthrow Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende respectively, according to a recently declassified White House memo on their meeting. | 08/18/09 07:03:59 By - Juan O. Tamayo
Zelaya can't return to office, Honduras leader says
Honduras' interim president told McClatchy on Monday that he won't agree to any proposal to resolve his country's political crisis that would allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to power. | 08/17/09 19:03:00 By - Tyler Bridges
Huckabee slams Obama in pro-settlement Israel visit
Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee slammed President Barack Obama's policies toward Israel on Monday in a visit here that underscored the tensions between the Obama administration and the Israeli government over Jewish settlements in what traditionally have been Palestinian areas. | 08/17/09 17:02:00 By - Cliff Churgin
U.S. general wants to move troops to northern Iraq
Iraqi voters could get a chance in January to hasten the withdrawal of American forces from their country by as much as a year, sending all remaining U.S. soldiers home by the end of 2010 instead of 2011. | 08/17/09 15:55:00 By - Adam Ashton
Ex-refugees skeptical that Afghan election will mean change
This valley in eastern Afghanistan could almost be in a different country for the thousands of former refugees who're struggling to rebuild their lives in it. Outsiders rarely visit the three settlements of Woch Tangi. Afghanistan's approaching elections Thursday have changed that, however. | 08/17/09 14:35:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Suicide bombing kills 20 in latest southern Russia violence
A suicide bomber slammed a truck into a police station in Russia's troubled Caucasus region Monday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens in a fireball that scattered charred bodies and set the building on fire. | 08/17/09 00:18:00 By - Tom Lasseter and Dina Djidjoeva
Peru earthquake victims continue waiting for aid
Two years after an earthquake devastated parts of the Ica region, many Peruvians have yet to receive the promised government assistance. | 08/17/09 07:02:29 By - Sophie Kevany
After 6 years of democracy, Iraqis learn limits of free press
Journalist Ali al Asasdi gets to report that corruption exists in Iraqi government — he just too afraid to say who's corrupt. Journalists are finding that while they have greater freedom than they had under Saddam Hussein, they still are trying to figure out the rules. Earlier this month, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Interior announced that publishers to get their permission before printing books and journalists still fear retaliation for their work. | 08/16/09 14:27:00 By - Adam Ashton
Afghan government seeks Election Day truces with insurgents
The government here, with the blessing of its foreign backers, is trying to arrange Election Day truces with local Taliban commanders to ensure that voting can take place in the war-torn south and east, senior Afghan officials said Sunday. | 08/16/09 17:06:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Notorious Afghan warlord returns to help Karzai
A notorious Afghan warlord accused of allowing the murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of prisoners and then destroying the evidence returned to Afghanistan Sunday night as part of what appears to be a political deal brokered with President Hamid Karzai. | 08/16/09 16:31:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Tom Lasseter
How did a suicide bomber get to Kabul's NATO headquarters?
Afghan authorities are trying to determine how a suicide bomber breached tight security in Kabul's diplomatic quarter on Saturday and detonated an SUV packed with explosives in front of NATO headquarters five days before the presidential election. At least seven people died and 91 others were injured by the explosion, according to a Defense Ministry statement. | 08/15/09 16:42:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay
Recent Homepage Headlines
loading...
BLOG
Inside Iraq
Written by Iraqi journalists working for McClatchy in Baghdad and outlying provinces.
