Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

The number of US female soldiers sexually assaulted by their male counterparts and superiors in Iraq and Afghanistan has jumped by 25%, official US data shows.

According to the latest Pentagon figures over 3,700 women were sexually assaulted in year 2009, which is close to a third of US female veteran population.

A senior official in the United Nations has warned that the growing use of full body scanners at airports breaches individual rights.

Martin Scheinin, the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur, said the scanners are more of a political response to terrorist attacks than a carefully designed security measure.

Congress and the White House are in disagreement over whether March 18 has been set as the deadline for a vote on US President Barack Obama's health care reform bill.

Earlier last week, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the House was set to vote on the sweeping legislation by March 18, the day the US president is scheduled to leave for a week-long visit to Indonesia and Australia.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has warned that imposing new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program would be a very dangerous step.

Sanctions could isolate Iran so much that tensions would spiral out of control, Lula told AP in an interview on Tuesday.

US Vice President Joe Biden, who is in Israel for 'proximity talks' between Israelis and the Palestinians, has reiterated Washington's commitment to Israel's security.

There is absolutely no space between the two sides in terms of Israel's security, Biden assured in a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

US lawmakers are stepping up efforts to tighten sanctions on Iran after a report revealed that Washington had awarded 107 billion dollars in payments to American and international companies doing business with the country.

"We need to send a strong, clear signal to Iran that until it halts its nuclear ambitions, the dangerous state will be denied the benefits of access to the global economy," Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Monday.

The majority of Americans believe the Obama administration is on the wrong track according to a latest poll.

A Democratic organization, Democratic Corps, and a progressive lobby group, Third Way, released the survey on Monday.

US President Barack Obama has started a cross-country tour in a bid to rally support for his massive healthcare reform plan while the fate of his signature legislative initiative remains to be dubious.

Obama's crusade trip on Monday would first take him to Philadelphia where he would speak to the public to coax them into giving their backing for his reform plan that envisages overhauling America's healthcare system.

Are death row prisoners in the US being literally tortured to death? According to doctors, lethal injection - America's favorite form of execution - is an inhumane, agonizing way to die.

The US president has criticised health insurance companies in the country for raising their premiums and denying coverage to the critically ill.

Addressing a rally in Philadelphia on Monday, Barack Obama called on the Democratic Party to back his healthcare bill, accusing some companies of dropping "more people's coverage when they're sick and need it most".