Free Republic

Iran has damaged 20 US military sites since the start of the war, satellite images and videos analysed by BBC Verify show, suggesting the attacks are more extensive than publicly acknowledged. Iran has targeted key facilities across eight countries in the Middle East since the end of February, causing millions of dollars of damage to state-of the-art air defence systems, refuelling aircraft and radars. Tehran has targeted both US bases and shared military facilities in retaliation to the US-Israeli strikes across Iran and Lebanon over the past three months. The Pentagon says it has hit more than 13,000 targets in...

Tonight the BBC staged a sham show trial on the Iraq war - on the very day of the elections! We can move these two poll questions. There are only about 2,700 votes on each. Do you believe the allies have breached the convention on the methods and means of warfare? 64.8% Yes 35.2% No Do you believe the allies have breached the convention on torture and refugees? 69.1% Yes 30.9% No

The United States has expressed serious concern over the imprisonment of two Tunisian lawyers who publicly criticised Tunisia's government. Mohamed Abbou was jailed for comparing the treatment of Tunisian inmates to those in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Respecting freedom of expression was an essential element of democracy, a US state department spokesman said. Human rights groups say the authorities tolerate no dissent and harass critics of the regime. Jailing critics "We are very concerned about the situation," US state department spokesman Richard Boucher said, AFP reports. Tunisia should be abolishing laws that criminalise freedom of expression Sarah Leah Whitson Human...

Lord's Resistance Army rebels have killed at least 20 people in the north of Uganda in two separate attacks. A vehicle was ambushed on Thursday night, hours after refugees were hacked to death with the tools they were using to work in the fields, officials say. The attacks come at a time when aid agencies have expressed concern over increased insecurity close to Gulu. Despite the attacks, efforts to set up peace talks with the rebel leadership are continuing. Head wounds The refugees were killed near Koch Goma camp 25 kilometres south-west of Gulu town. The rebels "used machetes, axes...

Indonesian newspapers are broadly pessimistic about the impact of martial law in Aceh province, with some deploring the decision and others seeing it as the least worst option. Pikiran Rakyat is sure that the separatist Free Aceh Movement will resist the Indonesian army in a full-scale war. "The Free Aceh Movement, as can be seen from its determination, will fight back. In its eyes the government of the Republic of Indonesia is a coloniser." The main victims of the war will be the Acehnese themselves, Pikiran Rakyat concludes. The Jawa Pos agrees that martial law is a declaration of war...