Military Police

Bahrain's king declared a three-month state of emergency Tuesday in an effort to quell a month-old uprising as rival groups of protesters and gangs set up more checkpoints around the capital. The move by King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa appeared to amount to a declaration of martial law the day after hundreds of troops and police from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates poured into Bahrain with the support of the government after worsening violence paralyzed Manama, the capital, in recent days.

Egypt's ruling military council apologized Saturday after military police used truncheons and electric shock batons against late-night protesters in Tahrir Square, birthplace of the country's nascent democracy. About 25 people were arrested and others were treated for injuries after the soldiers chased several hundred protesters from the downtown crossroads shortly after midnight, witnesses and the army said. The episode was the first direct confrontation between the protesters who toppled longtime President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11 and the military authorities who have governed since.

Word came from the street: A mob had gathered in front of the ground-floor door, blocking the exit from the offices of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, a pioneering Egyptian human rights organization. Former director Ahmed Seif knew what was coming: a raid. He advised the rest of us to sit tight and not resist, so as not to "provoke them into violence. " And then they came. Burly men with big clubs, others in sports jackets typical of state security agents, and a uniformed policeman.

Two dozen Navy bomb experts departed from North Island Naval Air Station here Tuesday to assume responsibility for one of the most dangerous jobs remaining for U.S. military personnel in Iraq: detecting and defusing improvised explosive devices. The sailors, part of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 1, will assume command of the 500-man Joint Task Force Troy, responsible for command and control of explosive ordnance disposal forces throughout Iraq. Part of the yearlong mission is to help teach Iraqi forces how to take over the assignment when the Americans leave by the end of next year.

The video, shot in the jungle of Indonesia's restive Papua province, shows a wounded political activist lying face-up on the ground, surrounded by an armed national police tactical squad. The captive, Yawan Wayeni, winces in agony, his head propped up on a log. A bloody sarong covers a gaping wound inflicted by the assailants with a bayonet, his intestines bulging from his stomach. The seven-minute clip, the focal point of a new human rights campaign here, shows the men mocking Wayeni as he lies dying.

A landmark international conference on Tuesday endorsed President Hamid Karzai's plan for Afghanistan's security forces to take over responsibility for safeguarding the country within four years, setting a potential timeline for foreign troops' departure. The Afghan capital was under virtual lockdown for the high-level gathering, which passed without any major attack. However, insurgents fired rockets at Kabul's international airport overnight, forcing the diversion of a plane carrying U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Bagram air base, north of the capital.

The rifle-toting Mexican soldiers who patrolled in convoys have been sent to the barracks. Now 5,000 federal police officers are responsible for law and order in Mexico's deadliest city. The shift in April from military to civilian police control is part of a broadened Mexican government strategy aimed at curbing street violence that has killed more than 5,000 people in Ciudad Juarez since early 2008. So far, the results have been mixed. The bodies keep piling up and a fledgling "hearts and minds" campaign has yet to produce convincing gains.

The pursuit of peace often trumps the pursuit of justice. The desire to move forward after a war makes political leaders reluctant to stir up old resentments or dig deep into atrocities of the past. But history ignored can become history denied, not to mention repeated. For that reason, we applaud the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission's painstaking investigation into the massacre of thousands of leftists during the Korean War half a century ago. Whether it's the murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador or 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany, war crimes must be brought to light.

An American soldier accused of killing five fellow troops at a counseling center in Iraq had been unraveling for nearly two weeks but the U.S. military lacked clear procedures to monitor him or deal with the deadly shooting spree once it began to unfold, a military report found. The shooting at a U.S. base in Baghdad in May was the deadliest case of U.S. soldier-on-soldier violence in the six-year Iraq war. Sgt. John M. Russell, 44, was arrested and is the only person charged in the incident.

For years, Donna Lozano badgered the Desert Hot Springs Police, public officials and anyone else who would listen, trying to get information about her son's killer. Henry Lozano, a popular 20-year-old ex-Marine, had been shot dead by a suspected gang member in December 2001 while driving near his home. He was dating the man's former girlfriend and had received threats to stay away. "I wanted answers. The police never called. The officer in charge of the case had never done a murder investigation," said Lozano, 65. "I said my son is dead, and I have no information."