Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein refused today to enter a Baghdad courtroom where he and seven of his former deputies are on trial for crimes against humanity.
Witnesses continue to testify in the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven of his deputies for the massacre of almost 150 people in the Shi'ite village of Al-Dujayl in 1982.
Defense attorneys for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein briefly walked out of the courtroom during an unruly session on 5 December.
Scientists preparing for a climate-change conference in Canada next week are already arguing about the need for tougher international action to slow global warming.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to build a pipeline that links the oil-rich area of Siberia to the Pacific coast. Meanwhile, Tokyo announced support for Moscow's WTO bid, but there was no progress on the dispute over the Kuriles.
Reporters Without Borders has created a list of countries it considers "enemies of the Internet." Heading that list are China and Iran. Regimes in Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan also are singled out as repressive governments who are trying to control the Internet in order to silence the political opposition.
Sajida al-Rishawi and her defused explosive belt as seen on television (AFP) An Iraqi woman has confessed on Jordanian television to being part of last week's suicide bomb plot that killed 57 people at three international hotels in Amman. Sajida al-Rishawi says she and her husband went to one of the hotels together to carry out part of the attack. Her husband died when he detonated a belt of explosives. But al-Rishawi says her bomb failed to go off.
Decades of war and the Taliban's five-year ban on music took their toll on Afghan classical music. Musicians have been trying to resuscitate the art since the end of Taliban rule. But they face serious economic and artistic challenges -- including the threat of possible attack by Taliban fighters if they perform in provincial areas.
Election officials have postponed the announcement of the final results of the parliamentary elections for a few more days as they continue to look into fraud allegations in Kandahar Province.
(RFE/RL) The live broadcast of the 12th annual MTV Europe Music Awards last night featured a controversial host who pretends to be from Kazakhstan named "Borat Sagdiyev." But the rude host isn't from Kazakhstan at all. Borat is a fictional character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen that satirizes a Kazakh television journalist.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (file photo) (AFP) U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is defending Washington's decision not to allow UN human rights investigators to interview terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Three UN experts were given permission in late October to visit the detention facility at a U.S. Naval base in Cuba. But the UN officials say Washington's conditions violate the basic requirements of fact-finding missions -- preventing any objective and fair assessment of conditions for detainees. The UN team says it won't accept the invitation unless private interviews are allowed with detainees.
A victim of the earthquake in Kashmir (AFP) UN aid officials say the international community lacks full comprehension of a catastrophe looming in Pakistan that threatens the lives of 3 million people. Yesterday's UN aid conference in Geneva drew less than $16 million in immediate emergency relief needed for victims of the 8 October earthquake before the Himalayan winter begins in a few weeks. Although more than $550 million was pledged, most of the money could take months to materialize. Is the conference shortfall a symptom of the wider problem of donor fatigue?
U.K. rescuers in Islamabad (epa) UN aid officials say more people could die of hunger, cold and injuries in the aftermath of Pakistan's earthquake than during the earthquake itself unless representatives of rich countries meeting in Geneva on Wednesday (26 October) quickly come up with more aid money. The World Food Program says it has just five weeks to get six months' worth of food supplies into the most remote areas of Pakistan before quake victims there are cut off by winter storms. The need for winter tents or other forms of temporary shelter also is urgent.
The Afghan government has extradited one of its citizens to the United States. Haji Baz Mohammad is accused of trafficking drugs and channeling profits to the Taliban regime.
The UN Security Council is to decide whether to start talks on the future of Kosovo. The predominantly ethnic Albanian province legally remains part of Serbia, but has been administered by the United Nations since June 1999.
Police show drugs seized in Afghanistan in May (file photo) Afghanistan's Interior Ministry says at least 18 police officers were killed on 10 October when suspected Taliban fighters in the western province of Helmand ambushed their convoy. But Helmand Province's police commander tells RFE/RL he thinks local drug smugglers near the border with Pakistan also were involved. The bold attack took place shortly before nightfall, within 10 kilometers of the border with Pakistan, with the battle continuing into the early hours of 11 October. It was the deadliest assault ever against the fledgling Afghan National Police -- and one of the worst attacks in months against members of the U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition.
International teams, like this group of U.K. rescuers, have been working with local troops and civilians to help find survivors Foreign rescue teams and aid pledges are pouring into Pakistan and India from around the world after a devastating earthquake killed tens of thousands and left some 2.5 million people homeless in the region. An eight-member team from the United Nations has begun coordinating the relief effort in the hardest-hit areas. Many countries are sending help, as the death toll estimates continue to rise.
Afghanistan's Joint Electoral Management Body today announced the first provisional results from parliamentary and provincial elections. The results in the southern provinces of Nimroz and Farah come nearly three weeks after some 6.8 million people turned out to cast ballots. Election officials say initial results from all 34 Afghan provinces should be announced within the next seven days. But investigations into complaints of vote fraud must be resolved before final official results are certified. That could take until the end of October.
Pakistani troops on the Afghan border (file photo) Pakistani interrogators on 5 October were questioning the chief spokesman for the Taliban militia, a day after capturing him in the city of Quetta. The interrogators want to learn more about the contacts and other sources of information for Abdul Latif Hakimi, who spoke often to international news organizations during the past year about Taliban attacks against U.S. and Afghan government troops.
France has told visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Paris favors keeping separate commands for the United Nations security assistance mission and U.S.-led combat operations in Afghanistan. Karzai has expressed hopes that NATO will eventually assume command of both missions. It is a position that is backed by Washington as the U.S. begins to reduce the size of its combat force in Afghanistan.
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