Israel Lashes Out at Palestinian Reconciliation

Israel has lashed out at the recent ground-breaking deal in Cairo, which will see unification of the two main Palestinian political factions after four years of bitter infighting, by threatening economic sanctions against the Palestinians.

SRI LANKA: War Long Over, Media Still Muzzled

It has been two years since the end of Sri Lanka’s decades long war, and life in general has begun to slowly edge back towards normalcy here. Not so for the country’s besieged media community, according to observers and journalists alike - reporting still feels hemmed in and muzzled, they say.

Drug-Related Violence Closing in on Mexican Capital

The military offensive waged by the conservative government of President Felipe Calderón against drug cartels in northern Mexico has resulted in an appalling death toll and grief-stricken relatives mourning the victims, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire. Now the drug war is beginning to affect the capital, which had so far escaped the worst of the violence.

EGYPT: Press Freedom Comes With a few Red Lines

The collapse of autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt has broken the state’s stranglehold on the local press, but journalists and bloggers must still be careful what they say.

Dramatic End to Long Hunt

In the middle of the night, in an affluent suburb a little over 50 kilometres north of Islamabad, Pakistan, Osama bin Laden was gunned down in a compound shielded by barbed wire-topped walls up to five-and-a-half metres high. He resisted, United States officials say, fighting till the death as he had vowed he would.

‘Good News’ on Holocaust Anniversary

Israelis woke up in the morning of Holocaust Remembrance Day, switched on their radio, and heard unexpected "good news".

Osama Killing Shakes Up Pakistan

Shabbir Hasan, 49, was woken up in the dead of the night to the sound of the "roar of a really low-flying helicopter." Hasan, a businessman, has lived in the hill station in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province all his life. The sleepy town is known for its educational institutions - and military establishments.

Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan

Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, is dead. U.S. president Barack Obama said bin Laden, the most-wanted fugitive on the U.S. list, had been killed on Sunday in a U.S. operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 150km north of Islamabad.

Moves to Undermine Egyptian Revolution

More than two months since former president Hosni Mubarak was forced from office after 30 years in power, local political figures and analysts warn of "counterrevolutionary elements" still working behind the scenes to thwart Egypt's ongoing transition to democracy.

Food Price Hike Worsens Poverty in Asia

An annual meeting of Asian finance ministers and central bank governors in Hanoi is set to address the fate of 64 million people in the region on the brink of extreme poverty. They are the worst affected by soaring food prices, which have hit record highs in the first two months of this year.

Bolivia Steps Up Campaign at U.N. to Legalise Coca Leaf

Is coca a dangerous drug that should be tightly regulated, or an essential part of Andean indigenous people's cultural and medicinal heritage? Or perhaps both?

New Dangers Arise at Chernobyl

In the aftermath of the anniversary of the worst nuclear disaster in history, Ukrainian authorities have pledged not to abandon those still in need of assistance. But many of the country’s policies may be increasing the risk of a new catastrophe.

SPAIN: ETA Announces End to 40 Years of Extortion

The Confebask business association in northern Spain reported that it received a letter from the armed Basque separatist group ETA, announcing the cancellation of "the revolutionary tax" that it has charged businesses over the last 40 years.

Human Rights Council Issues First-Ever UN Condemnation of Syria

The special session on Syria held by the United Nations Human Rights Council Friday agreed on neither an international mission of enquiry, as originally foreseen, nor a lower level fact-finding mission - only a mission by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

YEMEN: Youth Ready to Confront Gender Roles

Despite being at the forefront of sweeping changes taking place in the country, the lives of the majority of Yemeni women are restricted to early marriage, motherhood and serving husbands, according to a new study by Women Without Borders (WWB), a Vienna based public relations and advocacy platform for women’s voices around the world.

LATIN AMERICA: Violence in the Age of Innocence

The countries of Latin America are working slowly to overcome barriers in the fight against the often brutal violence suffered by children and adolescents in their homes, schools, workplaces or juvenile detention centres.

U.S.: Lethal Injection Treads Murky Ethical Waters

The death penalty is in limbo in several states since the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated several states' supplies of sodium thiopental (ST), a key drug used in lethal injections, and as the supply of the drug to the U.S. grows even tighter.

SYRIA: Deraa a City Under a Dark Siege

As darkness fell across it, Deraa was a city under siege. Tanks and troops control all roads in and out. Inside the city, shops are shuttered and nobody dare walk the once bustling market streets, today transformed into the kill zone of rooftop snipers.

KENYA: Frustration Over Limits of ICC Charges

A decision to exclude crimes committed in the western city of Kisumu and the Nairobi slum of Kibera from a case against alleged organisers of violence following Kenya’s 2007 election could undermine the International Criminal Court’s effort to combat impunity in the East African nation, civil society groups have warned.

INDIA: Fukushima Won’t Stop World’s Largest Nuclear Facility

While the Fukushima tragedy has not deterred India from going ahead with building the world’s largest nuclear power facility at Jaitapur on the western coast, the government has announced a tighter safety regime for its ambitious nuclear power programme.

RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Amnesty International Calls for End to Police Violence

The Brazilian government must "put its house in order" and take a firm stand on respect for human rights if it wants a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, said Amnesty International (AI) secretary-general Salil Shetty.