US: Fundamentalist Protest Is Protected

In a contentious free speech case, the nation’s highest court has ruled that the right of a fundamentalist church group to protest at military funerals is protected by the First Amendment free speech clause of the constitution when the protest takes place in public and addresses issues of public concern.

PERU: Calling for Reduced Military Spending While Boosting Arms Purchases

United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Sergio Duarte said heads of state who call for a reduction in military spending should practice what they preach.

Arab World Protests Could Reignite Anti-Nuke Campaign

The global civil society campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons could be politically reignited by the phenomenal successes of the grassroots demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia, shadowed closely by Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Jordan.

LIBYA: Ragtag Rebels Stand Firm

The soldiers fighting against Muammar Gaddafi's forces in central Libya lack training, equipment and numbers, yet somehow continue to withstand attacks and push forward toward Tripoli.

MEDIA-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A Bad Case of Quid Pro Quo

At first glance, the Dominican Republic appears to be a bastion of free information, with seven print dailies and seven national television stations. But journalists here say that more subtle means of coercion have become the norm.

Growing Humanitarian Crisis in Cote D’Ivoire

The U.N. has announced that some 200,000 people have already fled the Abobo neighbourhood, in the north of Abidjan. Each morning for a week now, luggage on their backs, bundles on their heads, the sick riding in wheelbarrows, new borns cradled in their arms, thousands of people have fled Abobo on foot.

WOMEN’S DAY: An Arab Israeli Woman Fighting on All Fronts

"Every woman is a woman of frustration. Me, I'm just struggle." Hanin Zoabi, 41, is a Palestinian Israeli woman, a fighting woman. An elected member of the Israeli Knesset parliament, she is the first woman on an Arab party's list, Balad.

WOMEN’S DAY: Nepalese Maoists Abandoned by Party and Family

As ‘Flames of the Snow’, a documentary on the ten-year civil war waged by Nepal’s Maoist party played at Kathmandu’s Kumari cinema recently, Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" saluted women who fought in his People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Views of U.S. Influence Steadily Climb Under Obama

For the third straight year, views of the United States continued to improve during 2010, according to the annual BBC World Service Country Rating Poll released Monday.

EGYPT: Burning Questions for Mubarak’s Secret Police

The much-feared secret police and intelligence service that protected the regime of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak by arresting, torturing, and even killing opponents has started a wave of burning documents and evidence that could incriminate them, as calls escalate for abolishing the force altogether and bringing its officers to justice.

WOMEN’S DAY: Rallies Planned in Iran Despite Crackdown

Women's rights campaigners are hoping for a strong turnout to public rallies set to be staged across the Islamic Republic of Iran next Tuesday, despite a government crackdown on opposition demonstrators in recent weeks.

SOMALIA: Rising Human Cost of AU Mission

On Feb. 19, the morning after Uganda's presidential elections, Michael Muhamuza called home and spoke to his cousin and his brother; a regular check-in with the family.

SOMALIA: New Partners for Peace Needed

The four-year old African Union Mission in Somalia is fighting a desperate defensive action in support of a transitional government that is "corrupt and inept", according to the International Crisis Group

DISARMAMENT: Bridges Could Become Barricades

Although the ratification of a new strategic arms reduction treaty (START) with the United States is considered a top priority for the Medvedev administration, experts are debating whether such an agreement could threaten to reduce Russian military power in the future.

LIBYA: Heading Unarmed to Take On Gaddafi

The rebel forces fighting to oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi from power are slowly moving towards the Libyan leader’s bastions in the cities of Sert and Tripoli. Ordinary citizens are responding to the call to arms, even though they have no weapons.

Brazil Opposed to Military Options in Libya Crisis

Brazil, firmly opposed to a militarisation of the crisis in Libya and in favour of negotiated solutions without foreign intervention, is heading to a Mar. 7-8 ministerial meeting with India and South Africa.

WOMEN’S DAY: A Historic Opportunity Unveiled

In 1945, more than half a century ago, the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco wrote women's equality into its canon, creating an indisputable commitment to gender equity in the post-World War global order.

Libyan Leader Arab World’s Perennial Gadfly

The irrepressible Hollywood comedian and celebrated movie director Woody Allen once jokingly remarked that the 1917 Russian Revolution erupted when the serfs discovered that "czar" and "tsar" were one and the same autocratic monarch they hated.

CUBA-US: Half-Century of Conflict Backdrop to Alan Gross Trial

More than 50 years of conflict between Cuba and the United States, and in particular Washington's consistent support for dissidents in this Caribbean island nation, will leave their mark on the trial of U.S. citizen Alan Gross that began this Friday.

Former U.S. Soldier Told He Has No Country

Forty-four-year-old Ramdeo Chankar Singh is at his wits' end.

Protesters Converge on Iraq Capital

Hundreds of people have converged on Baghdad's Tahrir, or Liberation, Square for an anti-government demonstration despite a vehicle ban that forced many to walk for hours to the heart of the Iraqi capital.