LIBYA: U.S. Denounces Gov’t Violence as “Unacceptable”

Still struggling to catch up with fast-moving events throughout the Middle East, the administration of President Barack Obama Tuesday joined a growing international chorus in denouncing efforts by the Libyan government to crush a growing uprising against the 42-year reign of Muammar Al-Gaddafi.

ARGENTINA: Pockets of Child Malnutrition Despite Economic Boom

Despite years of strong economic growth, record harvests and massive social assistance programmes, there are still places in Argentina untouched by the boom, where child malnutrition has even claimed lives.

U.N.’s New Agency for Women Readies for Takeoff

When the 192-member General Assembly, the highest policy- making body at the United Nations, decided to create a special agency last July to promote the advancement of women, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed it as a "historic" decision.

IRAQ: Eight Years of Abuses and Impunity

A leading human rights group released a report Monday documenting the proliferation of human rights abuses in Iraq since the United States' invasion in 2003.

MIDEAST: Mubarak Name Easier to Erase Than his Legacy

It was easy enough to rename Mubarak Children’s Hospital the Al Tahrir Hospital in Gaza. Not so easy is the task of managing patients who need to cross over to the Egyptian side for treatment, or come back in.

PERU-ISRAEL: Diplomatic Impasse over Corruption Cases

The Peruvian government has offered to put Israeli citizen Dan Cohen on trial in Peru, after refusing to extradite him to Israel on the grounds that there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. Cohen is alleged to have taken bribes of 4.1 million dollars while serving on the board of directors of the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC).

LIBYA: Gaddafi Hits Out With Deadly Force

Libyan leader Muammar Al-Gaddafi has unleashed the bloodiest crackdown so far against pro-democracy protestors seeking his ouster, killing dozens of people in only four days of protests.

MIDEAST: Train Connections Fail to Bridge

The apex of modern times for one of the world's oldest cities is when what looks like a silvery car glides by. A cruise on Jerusalem's first light rail is a dream of perfection promising to relieve traffic congestion in the city.

CHINA: Men Becoming More Suicide-Prone

While new research indicates that China’s overall suicide rate has been in decline for the last two decades, some segments of the population – including urban males and the elderly – are increasingly likely to take their own lives, the result of breakneck social change in the world’s most populous country.

Egypt Takes a Step Back From IMF Ways

Egypt could soon be looking for a new economic model – one that will be different from the traditional system that has been promoted for years by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), under the reign of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

U.S. House Pushes Through Deep Aid Cuts

With a 2015 deadline fast approaching to meet a collective global promise to tackle poverty and improve education, health and environmental sustainability around the world, development and humanitarian advocates are up in arms over conservative lawmakers' proposals to slash and burn entire chunks of the United States' foreign aid budget.

ITALY: Berlusconi Gets ‘Automatic Justice’, for a Start

The trial of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on charges of underage prostitution has just taken a turn that some commentators are calling an appropriate twist of fate: the trial, due to begin on April 6, will be adjudicated by a panel of female judges.

When Asia Put Some Dictators Behind

As Egypt takes tentative steps to replace ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade authoritarian rule with a democratic culture, its political planners may want to look halfway across the world to the most populous Muslim country for lessons on how to prevent a return to strongman rule.

INDIA: Red Link With Nepal Fades

With the powerful Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) relinquishing control of its fighting arm, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Indian government, faced with its own Maoist insurgency, can breathe more easily.

EGYPT: Pharaoh Fixes his Fortune

As Egypt’s popular uprising gained momentum and Hosni Mubarak’s downfall looked increasingly inevitable, he used his final days in office to secure his vast wealth, say analysts.

MIDEAST: U.S. Vetoes Settlement Freeze

Amid unprecedented political ferment in the Arab world, the United States used its veto Friday to block a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel's continuing annexation of Palestinian territory and calling for a freeze on settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Mideast Crackdown Puts U.S. Democracy Line to the Test

As popular protests escalated in some restive Arab countries Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama criticised the regime- sanctioned blood- letting of innocent demonstrators mobilising against government corruption and repression.

With Increased US Aid, Honduras Militarises Anti-Drug Fight

The United States appears to be strengthening its anti-drug strategy in Central America, whose focus in the case of Honduras will include military operations with troops from both countries, to begin in the jungle region of Mosquitia on the Atlantic coast.

LIBYA: People Fury Challenges Gaddafi

The movement for change sweeping across the Middle East has now rocked Libya. Thousands of people have taken to the streets across many cities to demand an end to the 41-year autocratic rule of maverick leader Muammar Al- Gaddafi.

U.S.: Women’s Health in Crosshairs of Republican Congress

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking to eliminate the federal family planning programme and cut funding from Planned Parenthood, one of the country's leading providers of reproductive health care to low-income women.

Residents of Razed Afghan Village Dispute U.S. Case for Destruction

The commander of U.S.-NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Terry, asserted last month that the homes systematically destroyed by U.S. forces across three districts of Kandahar province as part of Operation Dragon Strike in October and November "were abandoned, empty and wired with ingenious arrays of bombs".