Afghanistan's leading human rights organization said Sunday it was investigating the possibility that white phosphorus was used in a U.S.-Taliban battle that killed scores of Afghans. The U.S. military rejected speculation it had used the weapon. 　　White phosphorus can be employed legitimately in battle, but rights groups say its use... More

　　The Palestinian village of Silwan clings to a steep hillside facing the southern walls of Jerusalem's Old City. 　　In the valley below, Al Bustan neighborhood stretches out in the shadow of Haram al-Sharif, also known as the Temple Mount. It is a setting rich in meaning for Muslims, Jews and... More

　　The senior human rights official at the United Nations has said that the Israeli military acted with "near impunity" during its late-December to mid-January offensive on the Gaza Strip, violating international law. 　　Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a report on Friday that evidence collected... More

　　When common people use to say that, “America’s hidden agenda is to counter the nuclear program of Pakistan and take it under their control,” it was termed as the height of fanaticism & slogans of religious fanatics. 　　Since when US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said, “Pakistan’s government had... More

　　Israel ordered original Arabic names of all signs on Palestinian areas under occupation since 1948 to be turn into Hebrew language in an attempt to erase Palestinian identity in the region. 　　The Israeli transport ministry Yisrael Katz said on Monday that it will "get rid of Arabic and English names"... More

　　Troops fighting in Israel's war on Gaza were urged by their commanders to shoot first rather than worry about killing civilians, a document from an Israeli activist group shows. 　　Published on Wednesday, the document also gives an insight into Israel's policy of house demolitions and its use of white phosphorus... More

　　Israel arrested 9,000 Palestinians last year, 700 of them children. 　　A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC' s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank. 　　"You take the kid, you blindfold him,... More

　　Much of Bangladesh's water contains dangerous quantities of arsenic, a toxic compound that cripples human organs and can eventually lead to death. 　　The country is now scrambling to reverse what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls "the largest mass poisoning in history", but it will not be an easy task.... More

　　The number of people displaced by fighting in Pakistan's northwestern Swat valley has risen to more than 1.4 million, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Monday. 　　"The situation is volatile and changing rapidly," Holmes told reporters at the United Nations. 　　He said extra financial resources were urgently needed to... More

　　The International Committee of the Red Cross has described the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza as people "trapped in despair". 　　In a report, it said that a main cause was the continuing Israeli blockade. 　　The report comes six months after the end of Israel's military offensive in Gaza in... More

　　In 1948 hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from or forced to flee their homeland in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel. 　　While some were forced out by armed Israeli militias - perhaps the most notorious being the Irgun and Stern gangs - others fled... More

　　Confirmed figures reveal the true extent of the destruction inflicted upon the Gaza Strip by Israel’s offensive: 1,434 dead, including 960 civilians, 239 police officers, and 235 fighters. 　　The Israeli offensive launched on the Gaza Strip between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009 resulted in extensive death, injury and... More

　　Since Israel's closure of the Gaza Strip in 2007, only severely sick Palestinians have been allowed to seek medical attention elsewhere provided they receive authorization and security clearances from the Israeli authorities. 　　However, getting the special permit that allows patients to leave Gaza for medical treatment is a bureaucratic hassle... More

　　In November 2008, an Iraqi mother called Sabria Jaloob received what she described as a "blessing". 　　It was the body of her son, Noori, who had vanished during the 1980-88 war between Iraq and Iran and had not been heard of since. 　　For more than two decades, Sabria did not... More

　　 By Laith Mushtaq (a cameraman for Al Jazeera) 　　Laith Mushtaq was one of only two non-embedded cameramen working throughout the April 2004 'battle for Fallujah' in which 600 civilians died. 　　Five years on, he recounts the events he witnessed and filmed. 　　"What you saw on your TV sets at... More

　　An unprecedented fall in the water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has exposed the rural population to dangers of heat, drought – and displaced wildlife. 　　Swarms of snakes are attacking people and cattle in southern Iraq as the Euphrates and Tigris rivers dry up and the reptiles lose... More

　　Arye King is an Israeli settler on a self-appointed "mission from God": to extend Jewish ownership over the whole of Jerusalem. 　　Armed only with a crash helmet and a list of properties which, he says, belong to Jewish owners, he travels by motor scooter around the Jerusalem area, posting eviction... More

　　Israeli settler groups have set up 11 new outposts in the occupied West Bank, in a direct rebuttal of mounting US calls to freeze settlement activity. 　　Young Jewish groups are reported to have set up the structures – mostly tents and huts on hilltops – in the West Bank over... More

　　The "very dire" humanitarian crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa for many years, says Oxfam's coordinator for the failed Horn of Africa state. 　　Many of its hundreds of thousands of internally-displaced people, the world's largest such concentration, have little food or shelter, he said. 　　Mogadishu civilians have been... More

　　Decades of Soviet nuclear testing on the steppes of Kazakhstan have been blamed for an alarming number of health problems suffered by residents in the area. 　　Now scientists are trying to determine whether the victims are passing on faulty genes to their children, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie reports. 　　"It looked... More