The Bangladeshi government has allowed a British-trained paramilitary force to secretly detain, torture and kill hundreds of people with impunity over the past two years, a report warns.

The report, released by the New York-based NGO, Human Rights Watch, catalogues a series of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and deaths in custody of the Rapid Action Battalion. Citing a lack of redress for victims, and the government's dismal record of failing to prosecute a single perpetrator, the NGO has called on the Bangladeshi government to disband the RAB and for the UK and US to withdraw support unless they take active steps to hold the force to account. Torture methods listed in the report include burning with a hot iron, and beatings so severe that a victim's legs were "smashed and did not retain their usual shape; they were flattened". Mahabub Khokon told researchers that when he collected the body of his brother, Mohiuddin Arif, from the morgue after he was arrested by the RAB in February last year, repeated assaults had turned his legs green, skin had been scraped off several areas of his body, and his feet were swollen and looked as if they were "falling apart".

Syria has not granted a United Nations humanitarian mission access to the southern city of Daraa, where Syrian armed forces were deployed to crush anti-government protests, a UN spokesman said on Monday.

“The [UN] humanitarian assessment mission has not been able to get into Daraa,” spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. “We’re trying to clarify why it hasn’t had access, and we’re also trying to get access to other areas of Syria.” Asked if the UN felt that Syria had reneged on a prior agreement to allow it into Daraa, Mr. Haq said: “We’re trying to get the clarification as to why it hasn’t gotten in. Let’s see whether they can get in in the coming days.”

The US has waged the Western coalition's war on Libya in an attempt to evict China from the oil-rich areas of the North African country, a former US Treasury official says.

The crisis in Libya is mostly a “CIA operation and the US government is trying to get China out of Libya because China has extensive energy investments in Libya,” former Assistant Secretary to US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts told Press TV. “The US is very disturbed by the recent reports from the International Monetary Fund that China will surpass the US as the number one economic power within 5 years,” Roberts added.

Since the revolution against Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's regime began in mid-February, tens of thousands of people have been killed and injured in clashes between Libyan revolutionaries and pro-Gaddafi forces. Many civilians have also reportedly been killed since the Western coalition unleashed a major air campaign against the Libyan regime forces on March 19 under a UN mandate namely to “protect the Libyan population.” “For the same reason Washington is focused on Syria, because in Syria the Russians have a very large naval base in which they intend to keep aircraft carriers and Washington does not want the Russians with their navy in the Mediterranean,” Roberts argued.

Financial Times: Chinese oil interests attacked in Libya
PressTV: NATO strikes hurt 4 children in Tripoli
Xinhua: Libya suffers continued bombardment as humanitarian situation worsens
Barry Grey: NATO ships, planes left African refugees stranded in Mediterranean to die

When he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a Navy Seal team in Pakistan, President Barack Obama said, "Justice has been done." Mr. Obama misused the word "justice" when he made that statement. He should have said, "Retaliation has been accomplished." A former professor of constitutional law should know the difference between those two concepts. The word "justice" implies an act of applying or upholding the law. Targeted assassinations violate well-established principles of international law. Also called political assassinations, they are extrajudicial executions. These are unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by order of, or with the acquiescence of, a government, outside any judicial framework. Extrajudicial executions are unlawful, even in armed conflict. In a 1998 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions noted that "extrajudicial executions can never be justified under any circumstances, not even in time of war." The U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Commission, as well as Amnesty International, have all condemned extrajudicial executions.

President Obama insisted that the assault force hunting down Osama bin Laden last week be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, senior administration and military officials said Monday.

In revealing additional details about planning for the mission, senior officials also said that two teams of specialists were on standby: One to bury Bin Laden if he was killed, and a second composed of lawyers, interrogators and translators in case he was captured alive. That team was set to meet aboard a Navy ship, most likely the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea. Mr. Obama’s decision to increase the size of the force sent into Pakistan shows that he was willing to risk a military confrontation with a close ally in order to capture or kill the leader of Al Qaeda.

PressTV: No apologies for bin Laden attack
Jason Ditz: Pakistan PM: ‘Full Force’ Response to Future US Raids
Keith Jones: Pakistan warns US “unilateralism” could have “serious consequences”
Yahoo: CIA chief in Islamabad outed: Pakistan suspected of retaliating after US raid

In the video at right, Bahraini Dr. Fareeda al-Dallal speaks about her arrest and torture — and the continued detention and upcoming trial of her husband Dr al-Dallal, a prominent physician arrested on March 17 during a military raid at Salmaniyah hospital in Manama. After this interview she was again detained by the regime.

Sunday, Bahrain began a “trial” for 21 opposition leaders, seven of them to be tried in absentia. The trial was suddenly announced on Saturday following public attention on Friday – including an urgent appeal by Amnesty International – when word spread that human rights leader Abdulhadi Alkhawaja had been taken from jail to a hospital for surgery for injuries caused by torture. (Alkhawaja is known to many FDL readers as the father of @angryarabiya)

According to reports received by Amnesty International, when ‘Abdulhadi Alkhawaja was admitted to the Bahrain Defence Force military hospital in al-Riffa’, central Bahrain, around the end of April, he had cracks on his jaw and skull and black marks on his arms, allegedly caused by torture. He was reportedly admitted for six days and had several operations on his head and face. He was hastily returned to prison where he was said to have been tortured again.

Via twitter, Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bajrain Human Rights Center reports that:

The jaw of human rights activist A. Hadi alKhawaja was severely smashed graft was taken from his skull to repair it #bahrain

WL Central: Bahrain repression, intimidation and torture continue

WikiLeaks' Australian founder Julian Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, was given a peace award on Tuesday for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights."

Assange was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's gold medal in London, only the fourth to be handed out in its 14-year history. The not-for-profit organization associated with the University of Sydney, is supported by the City of Sydney. Currently fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, the computer expert was praised for "challenging centuries old practices of government secrecy and by championing people's right to know."

Microsoft Corp. is close to a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA for between $7 billion and $8 billion—the most aggressive move yet by Microsoft to play in the increasingly-converged worlds of communication, information and entertainment.

A deal could be announced as early as Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said, though they cautioned that negotiations aren't yet final and a deal could still fall apart. Including Skype's long-term debt, the total value of the deal is about $8.5 billion. Representatives for Microsoft and Skype declined to comment. Buying Skype—a service that connects millions of users around the world via Internet-based telephony and video— would give Microsoft a recognized brand name on the Internet at a time when it is struggling to get more traction in the consumer market. Microsoft has invested heavily in marketing and improving the technology of its Bing search engine. While it has made some market share gains over the past year, Google Inc. still dominates the search market with more than 65% of U.S. searches going through its site.

Tony Blair used 400,000 pounds from a fund for disadvantaged children to set up an office in a five-star hotel in West Asia.

Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed the sum came from Britain's Department for International Development , which works to "eliminate world poverty", the 'Daily Express' newspaper reported. But, it was spent on rooms at the exclusive American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, where Blair spends one week a month in his role as peace envoy to the Middle East, the British newspaper claimed. The 19th century hotel near the old city of Jerusalem is one of the most exclusive in Israel . A suite costs 550 pounds a night, the newspaper said. The cash was paid in 2007 as Britain's contribution to Blair's work representing the EU, America, Russia and the United Nations .

These are not the days of Kennedy where there were no women to be found in any strategic White House photos. Society has progressed and women now hold major positions the world over, whether some publications like it or not. Four days after the fact, a report of Hillary’s ‘altered state’ has finally been reported in the Israeli press. Either they were ashamed of the incident (which they should be) or they just didn’t care (which they shouldn’t).