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 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

　　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

　　Photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse which U.S. President Barack Obama does not want released include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Thursday. 　　The images are among photographs included in a 2004 report into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison conducted by U.S. Major... 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

　　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

　　Two Israeli officers have testified that troops in the West Bank beat, bound and blindfolded Palestinian civilians as young as 14. The damaging disclosures by two sergeants of the Kfir Brigade include descriptions of abuses they say they witnessed during a search-and-detain operation involving hundreds of troops in Hares village... 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

　　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

　　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

　　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

　　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 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