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The White House is calling on the Egyptian government to immediately release any journalists who have been detained in the course of covering the country's political unrest, saying the "systematic targeting" of reporters is "totally unacceptable." The Obama administration strongly condemned the behavior of pro-government supporters, after a number of international journalists -- including Fox Business Network's Ashley Webster, and Fox News' Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig -- were attacked, intimidated and in some cases jailed in Cairo. As pro- and anti-government demonstrators continue to clash, those covering the historic events have apparently become a target as well. The Obama...

The White House is strongly condemning North Korea's artillery attack against the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. In a statement released before dawn Tuesday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs calls on North Korea to "halt its belligerent action." He says the United States is "firmly committed" to South Korea's defense, and to the "maintenance of regional peace and stability."

At a debate sponsored by the Illinois League of Women Voters between Democratic incumbent Rep. Melissa Bean, GOP challenger Joe Walsh and Green Party candidate Bill Scheurer Wednesday, the audience loudly objected when the moderator, Kathy Tate-Bradish, insisted on proceeding without reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. In the end, she didn’t stand a chance against the 300-member audience. The camera captures Republican Joe Walsh’s reaction: Ms. Tate-Bradish reportedly scolded the crowd after the pledge ended, blaming the outburst on the Republican candidate. The LWV executive director, Jan Czarnik, also condemned the Pledge’s recitation, telling the local news, “It’s a phony...

On the eve of Middle East peace talks set to get underway at the White House Wednesday, the White House has condemned the attack Tuesday claimed by Hamas that killed four Israelis near Hebron, in the West Bank.(Snip)Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who met earlier today with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, also condemned the Hamas attack.(Snip) Israeli media reported that gunmen approached the Israelis' vehicle near the West Bank city of Hebron Tuesday evening and shot dead at point blank range the four people inside, including two women.

The United States condemned the words of Shas' spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef against PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Arabs. A statement released the by the US State Department said that Rabbi Yosef's words are "not only very harmful, but also affect the efforts to achieve peace." Rabbi Yosef made a public wish on Saturday night during his weekly sermon that "our enemies and haters may come to an end, Abu Mazen and all these villains – may the Holy One, Blessed Be He, afflict them with the plague... these evil enemies of Israel."

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House denounced a massive leak of secret military files that allegedly describe how Pakistan's spy service aids the Afghan insurgency, but said the information was no surprise. In all, some 92,000 documents were released by the web whistleblower Wikileaks, containing previously untold details of the Afghan war through Pentagon files and field reports spanning from 2004 to 2010. According to the New York Times, one of the first three media outlets to review and report on the leaks, they "suggest that Pakistan, an ostensible ally of the United States, allows representatives of its spy service...

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is condemning the killing of an illegal immigrant by U.S. Border Patrol agents as a "truly unacceptable violation" that involved "torture." He's also tying it to Arizona's immigration law, even though the incident took place on the border with California. "A death with that degree of violence is a truly unacceptable violation," Calderon said, according to the Associated Press. "We need to raise all our voices, not only for Mexico but for human rights, because the cause of migrants is a cause that affects us all." He added that the Arizona immigration law "opens a Pandora's...

<p>WASHINGTON (AFP) – Apollo 11 hero Neil Armstrong Tuesday lashed out at President Barack Obama's decision to axe NASA plans to return to the Moon, describing the move as "devastating" to the US space program.</p> <p>Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the lunar surface, was one of three former astronauts who signed an open letter to Obama ahead of his visit to Florida on Thursday where he will deliver a space policy speech.</p>

LONDON (AFP) – Gay-rights campaigners and secularists called on Tuesday for protests during a visit to Britain by Pope Benedict XVI this year after he condemned equality legislation seen as friendly to gays. The 82-year-old pontiff made his comments on Monday, when he confirmed plans to visit Britain later this year in what would be the first such trip in 28 years. The papal trip is expected in September, one minister has said. Human rights campaigner and gay activist Peter Tatchell said he saw the pope's remarks as an attack on the legal rights granted to gay people and women....

GENEVA (Reuters) – Israeli and Palestinian leaders should launch investigations of alleged war crimes in Gaza to help rebuild trust and support peace, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday. At the opening of a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting on the issue, Navi Pillay said that all sides of the Middle East conflict were continuing to violate international law and voiced concern that transgressors are being left unpunished. "A culture of impunity continues to prevail in the occupied territories and in Israel," she told the 47-member body, calling for "impartial, independent, prompt and effective investigations into...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan on Tuesday condemned the Taliban's killing of a Polish engineer as "absolutely barbaric", after Warsaw blamed his death on Islamabad's "apathy" towards tackling extremism. Piotr Stanczak, who was abducted in late September in volatile northwest Pakistan, was beheaded at the weekend by his Taliban captors, who then released a graphic video of the execution to several media outlets. Warsaw has confirmed the authenticity of the video and vowed to find Stanczak's killers, who are believed to come from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistan's umbrella Taliban organisation which has links to Al-Qaeda. "Officially the ministry of interior has...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned Sunday the killing of 17 soldiers by Taliban militants in the country's restive northwest, saying they had been lured into a trap. The soldiers were part of a convoy ambushed by rebels armed with rocket- propelled grenades and assault rifles as they headed to a fort outside the city of Hangu near the border with Afghanistan on Saturday. "I strongly condemn the killing of Frontier Constabulary personnel and salute them for their courage and valour," Gilani told reporters during a brief visit to Peshawar to condole the death of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday condemned Myanmar for new arrests of political activists, which it said contributes to a "climate of fear and repression" ahead of a referendum on the constitution. "We condemn the Burmese (Myanmar) regime's continued arrests and attacks on peaceful political activists," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement. "These blatant human rights abuses contribute to the climate of fear and repression in Burma as the regime prepares to conduct a referendum on its draft constitution," he added. He said the military junta over the weekend arrested five Muslim community leaders in...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2007 – The general in charge of coalition military efforts in Iraq today condemned “barbaric actions” by al Qaeda elements in the wake of bombings in the northern city of Tal Afar that killed dozens of Iraqi civilians and injured scores of others. In a written statement issued by Multinational Force Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said the attacks are designed to divide the Iraqi people and draw attention away from the improving security situation in Iraq’s capital. "Al Qaeda in Iraq elements once again displayed their total disregard for human life, carrying out barbaric...

RIYADH (Reuters) - The 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on Monday condemned a new round of Danish cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad, saying the values of tolerance were shrinking in Europe. Danish state TV on Friday broadcast amateur video footage showing members of the anti-immigrant Danish Peoples' Party (DPP) at a summer camp in August, drinking, singing and taking part in a competition to draw images mocking the Prophet. "Muslims have noted with concern that the values of tolerance are eroding and there is now shrinking space for others' religious, social and cultural values in the West," said...

Iraqi chillren wave hello to U.S. troops during a recent patrol. BAGHDAD -- Multi-National Force–Iraq on Sunday condemned recent attacks by terrorists and death squads against innocent Iraqi children and civilians at soccer fields in Hadhra and in the Amil district of Baghdad. In the statement, MNF-I officials said: “The Multi National Force – Iraq condemns the recent attacks by terrorists and death squads against the innocent Iraqi children and civilians at soccer fields in Hadhra and in the Amil district of Baghdad. We express our heartfelt condolences to the families and tribes who lost loved ones in these...

A journalism group passed a resolution Friday condemning the Bush administration's attitude toward the news media and claiming government practices were endangering press freedom. The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication targeted the administration for paying columnists, reclassifying public documents as secret, and using the courts to pressure journalists into revealing sources. "The current administration has engaged in a number of practices and has enacted a series of severe and extraordinary policies that attack the press specifically and by extension, democracy itself," the resolution stated. White House officials denied the charge, saying the "administration is committed to sharing...

WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday approved a Republican-crafted resolution condemning news organizations for revealing a covert government program to track terrorist financing, saying the disclosure had "placed the lives of Americans in danger." The resolution, passed 227-183 on a largely party-line vote, did not specifically name the news organizations, but it was aimed at the New York Times and other news media that last week reported on a secret CIA-Treasury program to track millions of financial records in search of terrorists. Most Democrats opposed the measure, protesting language in it that asserts that the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program was...

Jordan Condemns Operation Summer Rains 00:30 Jun 30, '06 / 4 Tammuz 5766 (IsraelNN.com) Jordan has condemned the IDF incursion into Gaza. Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Juda said that “The Israeli government imposes collective punishment against an entire nation, in addition to the wide-scale arrests in the Palestinian territories,” according to Jordanian news agency Petra. Juda said Israel’s actions were totally unjustified, in what he called its “determination to continue its broad aggressive acts against the Palestinian citizens with no right or justified reason.”