Full Coverage: Arms & military

09.10.2008 Global commitments to reduce poverty and improve lives cannot be reached unless the international community makes urgent progress towards controlling the arms trade, according to a new report.

24.09.2008 The British government might use a new international agreement to avoid strict legal controls on UK private military and security companies, a development charity has warned.

15.07.2008 Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris says that although the Abu Ghraib prison photographs were “the most widely seen photographs in history”, no-one had really talked to those responsible for the abuses captured on camera. His film Standard Operating Procedure puts that right.

24.06.2008 Ahead of a key House of Lords hearing, Sean Carey reflects on the disgraceful way Britain annexed a group of islands and dislodged a people to give the US an airbase.

02.05.2008 The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has left an indelible impact on country’s health and environment. Scientists believe that rising incidence of diseases and birth defects in Afghan children are attributed to the weapons used by the American forces containing depleted uranium.

23.04.2008 Whatever happens to the Chinese arms shipment destined for Zimbabwe, the case highlights the urgent need for the UN to work towards an Arms Trade Treaty at a meeting in New York later this month, says a leading development group.

21.04.2008 SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 21 (OneWorld) - About 300,000 U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or major depression. Another 320,000 veterans likely suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI), a type of physical brain damage often caused by explosions from roadside bombs.

08.04.2008 UNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 (IPS) - The United Nations remains virtually crippled as two proposed peacekeeping missions -- one in Darfur and the other in Somalia -- are making little or no progress.

07.04.2008 UNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 (IPS) - The United Nations remains virtually crippled as two proposed peacekeeping missions -- one in Darfur and the other in Somalia -- are making little or no progress.

04.04.2008 UNITED NATIONS, Apr 3 (OneWorld) - A leading humanitarian group is calling for the United Nations Security Council to take additional measures to help about 1 million Somalis who have been rendered homeless by the ongoing armed conflict in their country.

28.03.2008 At least 40 civilians have fallen prey to aerial bombings by US-led forces in Afghanistan in last two weeks alone. Aid agencies say more than 12,000 people have been killed since 2001. Anger among the people against NATO forces is mounting and they have begun to equate them with the Russians.

19.03.2008 NEW YORK, Mar 19 (OneWorld) - Tens of thousands of people are taking to the streets in major towns and cities across the United States today to express their anger and frustration with the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.

18.03.2008 SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND, Mar 18 (OneWorld) - Dozens of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans publicly testified this weekend about crimes they committed during the course of battle -- many of which were prompted by the orders or policies laid down by superior officers.

07.03.2008 BOGOTA, Mar 7 (OneWorld) - Amid the escalating diplomatic crisis with Venezuela, Ecuador, and now Nicaragua, tens of thousands of Colombians marched yesterday in solidarity with the victims of their country's violent conflict. They were joined by demonstrators in capital cities across the continent, as well as Paris and New York.

07.03.2008 Development agencies lack funds for successful reintegration, says UN Under-Secretary-General Radhika Coomaraswamy. Rehabilitation of child soldiers goes beyond the act of demobilisation from armies. Faith organisations and education can help communities receive these children back into their fold, says she.

01.03.2008 UNITED NATIONS, Mar 1 (OneWorld) - Further delay in the payment of past U.S. dues to the United Nations could lead to negative consequences for global peacekeeping operations and development programs, independent groups are warning.

24.02.2008 NEW YORK, Feb 24 (OneWorld) - While in Africa this week, George W. Bush drew fire for his plans to expand the United States' military presence on the resource-rich but economically strapped continent.

20.02.2008 NEW YORK, Feb 19 (IPS) - As the United States moves towards holding death-sentence trials for six Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have plotted the Sep. 11 attacks, legal scholars and human rights advocates are questioning not only the six-year-long process and timing of the charges, but also whether the accused could ever receive fair trials.

14.02.2008 MANILA, Feb 14 (IPS) - Non-government organizations (NGOs) opposed to the presence of United States troops in the country are calling for a suspension of U.S.-Philippine joint military exercises scheduled for Feb. 18.

07.02.2008 KARACHI, Feb 6 (IPS) - Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national incarcerated in the United States military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba since September 2004, suffers from a serious heart condition and may not live unless provided special care, says his lawyer.