Free Republic

Hardline opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys accused the U.N. special envoy to Somalia on Thursday of "destroying" the Horn of Africa nation, and dismissed talks with the interim government. Aweys is seen as an influential figure among insurgents in Somalia where he has headed numerous Islamist groups since the 1990s including the Islamic Courts Union that controlled Mogadishu and much of the south in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian soldiers later that year. The 62-year-old cleric told Reuters in an interview that U.N. envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah was harming Somalis by only supporting the weak transitional government. "It is...

A United Nations inquiry has called for the immediate closure of America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre and the prosecution of officers and politicians "up to the highest level" who are accused of torturing detainees. The UN Human Rights Commission report, due to be published this week, concludes that Washington should put the 520 detainees on trial or release them. It calls for the United States to halt all "practices amounting to torture", including the force-feeding of inmates who go on hunger strike. The report wants the Bush administration to ensure that all allegations of torture are investigated by US criminal...