LONDON - Amnesty International on Monday said the rights situation in Iraq five years after the US-led invasion was "disastrous" and that the country had turned into one of the world`s most dangerous zones. "Five years after the US-led invasion that toppled (former president) Saddam Hussein, Iraq is one of the most dangerous countries in the world," it said in a 24-page report, entitled "Carnage and Despair. Iraq Five ...

 The U.S. base at Guantanamo has been called many things. The "gulag of our time" (Amnesty International General Secretary Irene Khan, May 2005). "The key strategic intelligence platform in the war on terror" (Charles Stimson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, January 2007). The "legal equivalent of outer space" (unnamed Administration official). The right place for "the worst of a very bad ...

Counter-terrorism experts call it a 'force multiplier': an attack combining slaughter and electronic chaos. Now Britain's security services want total access to commuters' travel records to help them meet the threat Millions of commuters could have their private movements around cities secretly monitored under new counter-terrorism powers being sought by the security services. Records of journeys made by people using smart cards that allow 17 million Britons to travel by underground, bus ...

In Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Siobhan Gorman pulled together the disparate threads of reporting on what's known of the NSA's secret domestic spy program, and combined them with some of her own reporting to confirm, once again, that the NSA's program is another incarnation of the Pentagon's erstwhile Total Information Awareness program. Gorman also describes how Carnivore, the SWIFT database snooping program, and basically every other "Big ...

England beat New Zealand by 126 runs in the second Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. England levelled the Test series after they bowled the hosts out for 311 on the fifth and final morning. Left arm pace bowler Ryan Sidebottom, who captured 10 wickets in the first Test in Hamilton, provided the impetus for the visitors with five wickets in New Zealand's second innings. Wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum had a swashbuckling 85 ...

Four BBC journalists were arrested at the weekend by Irish police monitoring the Real IRA, the dissident group responsible for intermittent violence in Northern Ireland. The four were among 11 men arrested and held for questioning by Gardai in three separate police stations in the border county of Donegal. It is believed the journalists were working for the BBC's Panorama and BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight investigative programmes. Seven of the arrests were ...

Gordon Brown has promised that the Government will hold a full-scale inquiry into the mistakes made in Iraq before and since the invasion five years ago. His concession marks a significant break from his predecessor, Tony Blair, who steadfastly refused to hold a wide-ranging inquiry into the war. Mr Brown, however, insists it is not the right ...

Calls are growing on Admiral William Fallon and other senior military officers to make a public stand against the Bush administration’s alleged plans to attack Iran. Admiral Fallon's resignation last week from his position as head of the US Central Command is seen as a blow for those seeking a diplomatic resolution to the current standoff with Iran. His resignation has drawn demands that he “come clean” as to his ...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has criticized US President George W. Bush for his latest remarks and called him a genocidal terrorist. Chavez made the remarks on Sunday after President Bush accused him of supporting 'terrorists' in neighboring Colombia and fueling an anti-American campaign last week. "The president of the United States himself has come out and attacked us and attacked me personally, calling me a demagogue. ...