Former Guantánamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed claimed in March 8 media reports that documents sent from MI5 to the CIA show that the British intelligence agency was involved with his alleged torture in Morocco. Mohamed claimed the documents reveal that MI5 fed the CIA questions that ended up in the hands of his Moroccan interrogators. A telegraph to the CIA dated Nov. 5, 2002, reportedly has the heading, "Request for further Detainee questioning."

The "Real IRA" has claimed responsibility for the March 7 attack in which two soldiers were shot dead and four others, including civilians, seriously injured at the British army's Massereene Barracks in Antrim, Northern Ireland. The assailants, who attacked as pizzas from a local business were being delivered, all escaped. Massereene Barracks is the Northern Ireland headquarters of the British army's engineering division. Since the Good Friday Agreement, the number of troops there has been reduced and the base is due to be closed next year.

A US drone was shot down by Taliban militants March 7 in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal district, officials and residents said. The drone reportedly crashed in the Angoor Adda area, which has witnessed several missile strikes by pilotless aircraft as well as an apparent incursion last year by US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan. Pakistani officials are said to be searching for the wreckage. A drone was reported to have crashed near Angoor Adda in September. (PTI, March 7)

Israel accelerated its "illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem last year through municipal and security policies that discriminate against Palestinian residents, according to an internal report by European Union diplomats, dated Dec. 15, 2008, which was obtained by Reuters. The 20-page report acknowledged Israel's security needs but said its "actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making."

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court will seek Interpol arrest warrants for more than 100 Israelis on war crimes charges stemming from the conflict in Gaza, prosecutors in Tehran said March 5. Iran announced in December that it would establish a court to try Gaza war crimes suspects in absentia.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville said March 6 that his office may investigate whether Sudan's expulsion of foreign aid agencies is a breach of human rights law or war crime. UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond warned that the removal of the aid agencies could have a serious impact not only in Darfur, but also in the rest of Sudan and the region.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled March 5 that Russia is liable for the death of an ethnic Chechen at the hands of Russian forces in 2000, finding Moscow in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The judgment orders the Russian government to pay damages of nearly €37,000 to the victim's wife, Russian national Luiza Khalitova, who brought the action after her husband, Lech Khazhmuradov, was killed by Russian troops while chopping wood.

A Turkish court ordered the arrest of Cumhuriyet newspaper journalist Mustafa Balbay March 5 for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Balbay was arrested along with Internet publisher Neriman Aydin as part of the probe into secular group Ergenekon. The Ergenekon probe has been criticized as an attempt by the AKP to silence opposition and further their imposition of Islamic principles in violation of Turkey's secular constitution.