Obama 'to revive military trials'

US President Barack Obama is expected to announce on Friday that he is reviving military trials for some of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

But legal rights for defendants facing the military commissions will be significantly improved, officials said.

President Obama halted the trials as one of his first acts on taking office in January, saying the US was entering a new era of respecting human rights.

The decision to revive the military trials has angered civil rights groups.

There are currently 241 detainees still at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

President Obama has pledged to close the camp by January 2010.

Obama Shifts on Abuse Photos
Releasing Images of Detainee Mistreatment Would Endanger U.S. Troops, President Says

A month after making public once-classified Justice Department memos detailing the Bush administration's coercive methods of interrogation, President Obama yesterday chose secrecy over disclosure, saying he will seek to block the court-ordered release of photographs depicting the abuse of detainees held by U.S. authorities abroad.