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Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, holds press conference... VIENNA (AP) - The U.S. is obligated by a United Nations convention to prosecute Bush administration lawyers who allegedly drafted policies that approved the use of harsh interrogation tactics against terrorism suspects, the U.N.'s top anti-torture envoy said Friday. Earlier this week, President Barack Obama left the door open to prosecuting Bush administration officials who devised the legal authority for gruesome terror-suspect interrogations. He had previously absolved CIA officers from prosecution.

VIENNA -- President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates international law, the U.N.'s top torture investigator said Saturday. In a brief telephone interview, Manfred Nowak, an Austrian who serves as a U.N. special rapporteur in Geneva, said the United States had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it.

BERLIN - The UN's special torture rapporteur called on the U.S. Tuesday to pursue former president George W. Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for torture and bad treatment of Guantanamo prisoners. "Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany's ZDF television Tuesday evening. He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it. "We have all these...

GENEVA - The United Nations' top anti-torture investigator is proposing a new strategy to stop countries from abusing prisoners: bill them. Manfred Nowak said Tuesday it was unfair that rich countries in Europe and North America were footing the medical, psychological and legal costs for people who have been tortured around the world. "Countries where torture is widespread or even systematic should be held accountable to pay," Nowak told reporters in Geneva, where he addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council. "If individual torturers would have to pay all the long-term rehabilitation costs, this would have a much stronger deterrent effect...

US faces prison ship allegations The United Nations says it has learned of serious allegations that the US is secretly detaining terrorism suspects, notably on American military ships. The special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak said the accusations were rumours at this stage, but urged the US to co-operate in an investigation. He said the UN wants lists of the places of detention and those held. The comments come five days after the UN accused the US of stalling on their requests to visit Guantanamo Bay. Investigators have been asking to visit the jail in Cuba to carry out checks...