Terrorism

Authorities on Wednesday filed charges of murder and "waging war" on India against who they say is the lone known surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people in November. If convicted, 21-year-old Ajmal Amir Kasab, dubbed the "smiling assassin" by Indian media for the facial expression seen on closed-circuit video during the attack on the Mumbai railway station, could face the death penalty.

The residents of this city of cafes, culture and good food always thought they were different. Even when a few suicide bombers targeted the metropolis starting a couple of years back, most considered themselves relatively insulated from the worst of Pakistan's problems, the violence over the horizon in outlaw country near the Afghan border. Residents consider Lahore the arts capital of Pakistan and feel proud of its free, open atmosphere, its tolerance, sense of fun and vibrant street life.

The Supreme Court on Friday bowed out of deciding whether the president has the power to imprison people in the U.S. indefinitely without a trial -- avoiding a showdown the Obama administration did not want. The court granted the administration's request to dismiss the challenge to the president's authority from suspected Al Qaeda sleeper agent Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri, who was detained by the military for 5 1/2 years without charges.

U.S. efforts to identify and thwart the growing threat posed by Pakistani extremists who enjoy easy access to the United States -- and already have a significant presence here -- are being undermined by the government of Pakistan, according to current and former U.S. and Western counter-terrorism officials. After the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, in November, which killed more than 170 people, the FBI and other U.S.

A suicide bomber in Sri Lanka attacked a Muslim religious procession Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than three dozen, including a government minister, officials said. The army blamed the Tamil Tigers separatist group, which for a quarter of a century has been fighting for a homeland in the northern part of the South Asian island nation. Tiger militants, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, are on their heels.

The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of Al Qaeda captives "constituted torture," according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document. The report, an account of alleged physical and psychological brutality inside CIA "black site" prisons, also states that some U.S. practices amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." Such maltreatment is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Convention.

More than a generation has passed since the August night in 1975 when Sara Jane Olson and other Symbionese Liberation Army members tried to assassinate Los Angeles police officers by placing pipe bombs under squad cars. But for John Hall, one of the officers targeted in the plot, the memories of that night and what might have been remain vivid.

A senior Democratic senator expressed concerns Wednesday about the Obama administration's plan to triple nonmilitary aid to Pakistan, saying he wasn't sure that would push Islamabad to take more aggressive action against extremists. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, raised questions about the Pakistani government's willingness to forcefully confront militants who have destabilized that country and neighboring Afghanistan.

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that it had arrested 11 militants linked to Al Qaeda, seizing arms and breaking up a cell that planned to carry out attacks and kidnappings. Police arrested members of the group in several areas, including a region near the border with Yemen, Saudi news reports quoted the Interior Ministry as saying. State television showed video of security forces digging out bags containing assault rifles and other weapons hidden in a mountainous area.

A former No. 2 State Department official in the Bush administration says he hopes he would have had the courage to resign if he had known the CIA was subjecting terrorism suspects to waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning. Richard L. Armitage, the former deputy secretary of State, told Al Jazeera English television in an interview airing Wednesday that waterboarding is torture.