By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Maldives' first democratically elected president says the United States must acknowledge that he was ousted in a coup and press the current government of the Indian Ocean island nation to hold presidential elections this year.
The U.S. wants India to end its dependence on Iranian oil and train Afghan security forces as it seeks to deepen its relationship with a nation it considers a linchpin of its new defense strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.
The third U.S.-India strategic dialogue gets under way in Washington this week as the Obama administration considers imposing sanctions on the South Asian nation for importing oil from Iran.
By questioning a state investigator on the witness stand during a routine bail hearing, George Zimmerman's defense attorney showed some of the weaknesses in prosecutors' claims that the neighborhood watch volunteer committed second-degree murder, legal experts say.
The United States is increasing pressure on Sri Lanka to investigate the deaths of thousands of civilians at the end of its civil war. Human rights groups contend a Sri Lankan government commission has demonstrated no intent of doing it.
A senior U.S. diplomat says the United States did not have specific information about the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks before they occurred, despite U.S. media reports of warnings from two wives of one of the planners of the attacks.
A top U.S. envoy called Saturday for an independent investigation into the violence that has devastated southern Kyrgyzstan, as amateur video emerged of unarmed Uzbeks gathering to defend their town during the attacks.
Ethnic Uzbeks sheltering in squalid tent camps say they don't have enough food or clean water but are terrified of going back to live alongside those they hold responsible for days of shootings, arson and sexual assaults.
Kyrgyzstan's interim president said Friday that 2,000 people may have died in the ethnic clashes that have rocked the country's south — many times her government's official estimate — as she made her first visit to a riot-hit city since the unrest erupted.
Sometimes life gets so crazy that you just want to shave your head, stop wearing underwear in public and go to rehab.
PAKISTAN
"Any discussion of our strategic ties must begin with Afghanistan," Robert Blake, assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asian affairs, told an audience at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Thursday.
"It is no secret that there are some challenges now in India in terms of moving forward with the economic reform program," Mr. Blake said.
