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Show Al D A 1 1 RAID H V Wednesday. Mstth 12, 2008 U.S. critical of Cliina, Russia, others in annual human rights report Anne Gearan 7 The WASHINGTON United States branded China an authoritarian human rights abuser Tuesday, citing alleged torture, state control of basic aspects of daily life, tight controls on religion and harass- -- V V'. H J r 'Tit Denied basic human rights ment of foreign charities. China, host of the summer Olympics, has rampant and chronic human rights problems despite rapid economic growth that has transformed large parts of Chinese society, the State Department said in its annual accounting of human rights practices around the world. The world's most populous nat ion, China is an increasingly important U.S. trade partner and a chief competitor with the United States for energy and shrinking natural in 2007, few countries made progress in human rights, while most were under well-know- Human Rights status, 2007, select countries repressive government Some progress leadership. SOURCE Department of countries in the world except the United States. There are no automatic penalties to nations that get poor marks. The report noted further backsliding in President Vladimir Putin's Russia last year, and ticks off a string of undemocratic moves taken by close U.S. ally President Per-ve- z Musharraf of Pakistan. Political adversaries Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe and Syria were all listed as human rights abusers. Sudan's record was called "horrific." A "pervasive climate of violence" characterized Iraq' in the fifth year after the U.S.-le- d invasion, the State Department report said. Specific problems included official corruption, disappearances, torture, anemic legal protections, restrictions on religious freedom and "arbitrary deprivation of life." . ects in Beijing. President Bush plans to at- tend the Olympics this year. Visiting U.S. lawmakers would get help from the U.S. Embassy for a "safe, memorable and enjoyable experience," the U.S. ambassador in Beijing wrote in a letter last year. The report detailed the lengths some Chinese officials have taken to enforce their n "one country's child" policy, and gave a chilling account of alleged torture in China, including the use of electric shocks, beatings, shackles, and other forms of Progress challenged Regression Progress halted Repressive government by conflict Stats abuse. It includes an account of a and during sensitive events, including increased efforts to control and censor the Internet," the report said. Forced relocations went up last year, the report said. It noted claims that people were forced from their homes to make way for Olympic proj Olympics to leverage internal change and diplomatic cooperation from China, but the resources. It is the object of broad U.S. economic and diplomatic outreach, with mixed results. The United States, other nations and outside advocacy groups have tried to use the world media attention and prestige associated with the games are barely mentioned in the human rights report. "The government tightened restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, par- ticularly in anticipation of . prisoner strapped to a "tiger bench," a device that forces the legs to bend sometimes until they break. The study, published each year since 1977, offers a comprehensive analysis of all Pentagon: Syria, Iran supporting foreign fighters in Iraq hamstrung by internal corruption and persistent problems WASHINGTON Despite getting basic services to the increased counterterrorism ef- people, the report said. forts by Damascus, as much as The Defense Department's 90 percent of the foreign fightquarterly report on progress in Iraq, released Tuesday, said ers in Iraq cross the border from Syria, according to a Pen- that militants continue to find ' safe havens and logistical suptagon report that says Iran's support for Shiite militants also port in Syria. is hurting efforts to improve "It is not clear that Syria has made a strategic decision to Iraq security. deal with foreign terrorists usAs those external pressures ing Syria as a transit point into dog coalition and Iraqi forces, the government of Iraq is also Iraq," said the report, which THE ASSOCIATED PRESS a sizable threat to stability in Iraq. The report asserts that the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards,; still provides much of trie explosives for the militants. Several military commanders in recent weeks have said covers events from December through February. In late January, Iraqi of-- f icials suggested that about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters slipped into the country from Syria a few months earlier and were responsible for a devastating explosion in northern Iraq that killed at least 38 people and wounded more than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the allegations and said instead that the U.S. presence there was the problem. The Pentagon report reflects the ongoing decline in violence in Iraq, bolstered by last year's increase in U.S. forces and the continuing growth of the Iraqi 200. 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