U.S.: Muslim Women Try to Shatter the “Glass Minaret”

It's Ramadan, and Sara Elghobashy and a group of her women friends, having broken their fast, are looking for a mosque where they can hear the recitation of Koran.

POLITICS-CHINA: Row Over Tibet Escalates

China has sealed off Tibet with troops and demanded that the international community recognise the legitimacy of Beijing's historical claims over the Himalayan plateau, escalating a row over its policies there.

EL SALVADOR: Guerrilla Ecotourism

La Montañona, a forested mountain in northern El Salvador that reaches 1,800 metres above sea level, was a stronghold of the FMLN guerrillas during the country's armed conflict. Today, its forests and stories of bombings and rebel hideouts have begun to draw ecotourism.

MALAYSIA: Sleaze, Betrayals, Threats Mar Politics

Sex scandals, political betrayals, threats and anger at the once revered monarchy - suddenly politics in Malaysia, after a sterling start last year which saw a strong opposition in parliament, is taking an ominous turn.

LIBERIA: Even the Devil is Subject to the Law

Tiny 14-year-old Precious sits on her orphanage bed in the southern port town of Harper, accused of witchcraft six months ago and exiled from her family and nearby community.

Q&A: Gitmo Uighurs Highlight a Complex Ethnic Problem

Although United States President Barack Obama was quick to order the closure of the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay soon after assuming office, the question of what to do with the roughly 175 current inmates who are unlikely to be prosecuted by the U.S. remains.

RIGHTS-VIETNAM: Gender Equality Far Off Despite Political Will

"We’ve been busier than usual today,'' said Huong, giving only one name, as she scrubbed a customer’s scalp in her tiny salon, the front room of her home. "We’re doing the same treatments, only a lot more. Everyone wants to look beautiful today."

RIGHTS-US: Profiling Still Plagues Muslim Communities

On the heels of a recent poll that found that American Muslims experience emotional turbulence due to the stereotypes and suspicion of Islam since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, two major Muslim-American organisations issued scathing indictments of the tactics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Women Defy Militancy, Patriarchy

The challenges and contradictions facing Pakistani women were never so apparent as now. While striding ahead in a country that gave the world its first female, Muslim prime minister, they also face the threat of terrorism which claimed her as a victim.

MEDIA-THAILAND: Police Target Websites Unflattering to Royalty

As if the country’s draconian lese-majeste laws are not harsh enough, Thailand’s thought police have another weapon, the computer crimes law, to curtail the space for free expression.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Child Marriages Mock Laws, UN Conventions

All of seven, Perween sat on a string cot in her bridal finery, awaiting the big moment. She looked a little confused and peered from under her big, red shawl to see what the fuss was all about.

ECONOMY-CHINA: Human Rights Critics Silenced by Meltdown

If the global economic downturn is a crisis with a silver lining for cash-rich Chinese companies intent on bargain deals, it is equally so the image-conscious government whose human right critics have been silenced by the need to cooperate with Beijing on overcoming the recession.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Moves to Scrap Hated Security Laws in Kashmir

As political parties in Indian Kashmir debate the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the insurgency-hit state, civil rights activists hope that this will fructify into a withdrawal of the sweeping powers given to armed forces in this state since 1990.

ENERGY: Costa Rica Invests in Geothermal Power

The government of Costa Rica hopes to increase its power generation by tapping into volcanic hot spots, and to that end it has introduced a controversial bill in Congress that would allow drilling into volcanoes in national parks.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Democracy Under a Tree

It has already been dubbed "Pokok Demokrasi" or Democracy Tree and is set to enter the annals of folklore in Ipoh, capital city of Perak state.

ASIA PACIFIC: Know Your Indonesia – Australians Urged

One is cohesive, has a relatively small population and has been democratic since its foundation; the other is fragmented, is one of the world’s most-populous nations and only emerged from years of authoritarian rule a decade ago.

RIGHTS-PERU: “No Thanks” to Donation for Memorial Museum

Heduardo, one of the most scathing caricaturists in the Peruvian press, published a cartoon showing President Alan García more interested in a "museum of amnesia" than a proposed "museum of memory."

SOUTH ASIA: Terrorists Aim for Destabilisation, Media Attention

South Asia seems to be caught in a vortex of violence as the countries that form this region - from Sri Lanka at the southern-most tip, Bangladesh to the east, Nepal crowning the north, Pakistan along the west and India in the middle - deal with internal nightmares that their governments routinely blame on neighbours.

ENVIRONMENT: Bulgaria Going Down a Slippery Slope

The World Ski Cup for women last weekend was organised in Bulgaria at a ski resort whose development is partially illegal, and which is damaging a world heritage site.

DEVELOPMENT-NEPAL: Women Everesters Talk Gender Equality

Seven young women have started a seemingly commonplace programme of video presentations at schools in this mountainous Himalayan country. The programme’s contents however are unique.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Trade, Travel Across Divided Kashmir Stalled

Trade and travel between the Indian and Pakistan parts of Kashmir, as part of confidence building measures (CBMs) between the two rival countries, appear to have become a casualty of the Nov. 26-29 terror attacks on the port city of Mumbai.