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BY: Simon Tisdall | The Guardian
A senior UN official has called for Burma's military rulers to be investigated over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated against Burmese civilians, in a move that will sharply increase pressure on the isolated regime ahead of controversial national elections due later this year.
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BY: Nicholas Kralev | The Washington Times
The Obama administration's first global report on human rights differed little from the reports issued during President George W. Bush's second term, with the most notable exception being stepped-up criticism of the Iraqi government.
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BY: Janine Zacharia | The Washington Post
Vice President Biden on Thursday assured Israelis that the United States is "determined" to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and urged Arab states, equally worried about Iran's nuclear program, to take steps toward peace with Israel.
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BY: Anthony Shadid and Tim Arango | The New York Times
Iraq’s major coalitions were locked in a surprisingly close race on Thursday, in initial results from elections that deepened divisions across a fractured landscape. Candidates were quick to charge fraud, heightening concerns whether Iraq’s fledgling institutions were strong enough to support a peaceful transfer of power.
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BY: Oliver August | The London Times
Ayad Allawi told Western officials that aides to Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, had hidden ballot papers and falsified computer records in an effort to retain power. “They are stealing the votes of the Iraqi people,” his spokesman told a press conference called to set out the main claims.
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BY: Sarah Davison | The National
A flurry of diplomatic activity across South and Central Asia over the past two weeks has underscored rising concern about a power vacuum once US troops start withdrawing next year.
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BY: Greg Jaffe | The Washington Post
U.S. and Afghan officials are beginning a major overhaul of the Afghan police with the goal of cleaning up a force whose recent history of corruption has undermined confidence in the Kabul government and fueled the insurgency.
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BY: Alissa J. Rubin | The New York Times
The fighting was a setback for American military officials, some of whom had hoped it would be possible to replicate the pledge elsewhere. It raised questions about how effectively the American military could use tribes as part of its counterinsurgency strategy, given the patchwork of rivalries that make up Afghanistan.
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BY: Katie Glueck | Politics Daily
For women especially, life under the Taliban was oppressive. They couldn't work, they couldn't travel and they had no rights. Women were treated as "sub-class humans" and the international community took no interest in ameliorating their plight, Pakzad said.
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BY: David Francis | The Christian Science Monitor
Protesters took to the streets of Athens on Thursday over government austerity measures. But anger is also growing in Germany at being asked to finance the Greece debt bailout.
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The Economist
On any small Mediterranean island, property is jealously protected. Orange and olive groves can be as valued as posh villas and sea views. Nowhere more than in Cyprus, split into Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot zones ever since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 after a coup aimed at Enosis, or unification with Greece.
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BY: Nicole Itano | Global Post
Under pressure from international markets and its European partners to reduce its deficit, the Greek government last week announced a raft of tax increases and a 30 percent cut to the two-months of “bonus” pay Greek civil servants receive each year.
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BY: Erica Marat | Eurasia Daily Monitor
During his visit to Bishkek on March 10, the Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), General David Petraeus, reiterated that by helping to build an anti-terrorist center in Batken city, Washington does not seek to open an additional military base.
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BY: Gayane Abrahamyan | Eurasianet
A US congressional committee’s approval of a non-binding, draft resolution to recognize Ottoman Turkey’s 1915 slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide has sparked optimism among some Armenian analysts and pro-government politicians that the measure will push Turkey to reconcile with Armenia.
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BY: Alexander Bratersky | The Moscow Times
Russians will vote this weekend in the first major elections since disputed polls in October triggered calls from President Dmitry Medvedev for smaller parties to receive better representation in regional legislatures dominated by United Russia.
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BY: Seth Mydans | The New York Times
Thailand’s seemingly unending political crisis is likely to reach another moment of tension this weekend with huge opposition rallies that organizers say they hope will paralyze the city and bring down the government.
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BY: Alex Rodriguez and Zulfiqar Ali | Los Angeles Times
The attack took place in the Mansehra district, where World Vision opened an office to help victims of the 2005 earthquake that killed more than 70,000 people in Pakistan. All of the dead and injured in the assault were Pakistanis.
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BY: Anand Kumar | Asia Sentinel
The breakup of a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist cell in Dhaka two weeks ago has reinforced is the latest manifestation of the growing counter-terror cooperation between India and Bangladesh and confirms what was earlier only alleged – that Pakistan-based terror groups have been using Bangladeshi territory to launch terror operations against India.
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BY: Eliot Brockner | World Politics Review
In announcing on March 8 that Venezuela is interested in restoring diplomatic ties with Colombia, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro noted that any improvement will not take place while current Colombian President Álvaro Uribe remains in office. The jab was just one of many that Bogotá and Caracas have traded over the past eight tumultuous years, but the conciliatory rhetoric suggests that the two countries may be turning a corner in bilateral relations.
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BY: Björn Hengst | Der Spiegel
Only weeks after the country was hit by an earthquake, Haiti is threatened by the next potential calamity. The upcoming rainy season could turn overcrowded refugee camps into hotbeds of disease. And there has been criticism of the local government for not doing more to provide emergency accommodation.