PAKISTAN: Killer Sets Off National Introspection

The United States is putting pressure on Pakistan to release jailed American Raymond Davis, who has confessed to killing two men. But some Pakistanis want their government to demand concessions from the U.S. in exchange for Davis's freedom.

EGYPT: Military Under Mubarak’s Shadow

Egypt's armed forces, the de facto rulers of the country since last week’s ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, have already met several longstanding demands of the opposition, including the suspension of the constitution and dissolution of parliament. Some critics, however, say more must be done if the Mubarak regime’s authoritarian structure is to be satisfactorily replaced with a democratic one.

Protest Wave Rocks Bahrain

Bahrain, unlike Egypt with its 83 million people, has a population of only just over a million. And so when protesters settled down to sleep at a central roundabout in capital Manama, the police swooped down and manage to clear them away.

BAHRAIN: U.S. Faces New Test Over State Violence

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday expressed "deep concerns" about the deadly attack on hundreds of sleeping anti-government protestors carried out by Bahrain's security forces at a central square in the capital, Manama, Wednesday night.

U.N. Chief Rebukes Repressive Middle Eastern Leaders

As the military and the police try to violently suppress demonstrations spreading across Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Iran, a usually reticent U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon is taking a hard line against the oppressive authoritarian regimes in the politically volatile Middle East - and specifically against unrelenting leaders cracking down on protesters.

IRAQ: Protests Spread to Kurdistan

At least one person died and dozens were injured Thursday in Iraqi Kurdistan's second largest city as angry protestors attacked the local headquarters of one of the two ruling Kurdish parties, while an opposition building was set ablaze in the other major Kurdish city.

ECONOMY: Size Is Key Factor in Emerging Powers

Two decades ago, Japan was the main threat to U.S. global economic dominance, but this challenge waned before the advent of the 21st century. Now China and India are the new champions of growth, with the clear implication that population size is a decisive factor in their rise to power.

EGYPT: Wave of Strikes Challenges Military

The iron fist that has kept a tight grip on Egypt’s labour movements for nearly six decades relaxed this week, unleashing a wave of wildcat strikes that is testing the resolve of the country’s new military rulers.

UZBEKISTAN: EU Accused of Backing Child Labour

The EU is facing accusations of tacitly supporting child labour after its main decision-making body approved a trade agreement with Uzbekistan on textiles – an industry known to involve at least one million child labourers a year.

Pakistan Sees Too Much Change

The Muslim world is reeling from the fall of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, but the effect is unlikely to ripple through Pakistan despite people’s disenchantment with their leaders, officials and academics say.

Not Just Berlusconi’s Party Girls

While a handful of young sex workers have been under the spotlight in the weeks following a high-profile sex scandal involving Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, tens of thousands remain invisible victims of human trafficking.

Dead Peace Process Could be “National Suicide” for Israel

The U.N. Security Council is poised to vote this week on a new resolution condemning Israeli expansion into the Occupied Palestinian Territories and calling for an immediate freeze on settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but the United States has already declared its intention to again deploy its veto power.

ECUADOR: Still a Ways to Go, After Historic Ruling Against Chevron

The plaintiffs in the case against Chevron tried in Ecuador, who won a historic 9.5 billion dollar verdict after a nearly 18-year struggle over environmental and health damages caused in a quarter-century of oil operations in the Amazon jungle, are not disheartened by the road still ahead.

As Talks Stall with Iran, U.S. Steps Up Propaganda War

Egypt's revolution appears to have stiffened the spine of the Barack Obama administration when it comes to Iran.

Axe Descends on U.S. Overseas Aid

With U.S. President Barack Obama's release of his Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 foreign affairs budget Monday and a proposal currently in the U.S. House of Representatives for massive cuts in FY 2011 international spending, the fight to sustain U.S. aid abroad is intensifying.

ECUADOR: Child Malnutrition Down, Education Up

Major progress has been made in Ecuador over the last few years in reducing child malnutrition and expanding educational coverage.

CAMBODIA: Refugees Face New Risks

Cambodia must ensure it offers a safe haven to asylum seekers, rights groups say, following the government’s closure this week of a United Nations-run refugee centre, home to dozens of Montagnards from Vietnam.

CHINA: Deaths Rise With Smoke

Five years ago China pledged to ban smoking in all indoor public places by January of this year. That promise remains unfulfilled and is today symbolic of the lack of progress made in the fight against tobacco use in China, where up to a million people die of smoking-related complications each year.

Palestinian Revolution by Default

The Egyptian revolution, and the threat to autocratic Arab regimes all over the region, have forced rapid changes on the Palestinian political scene - with major players Hamas and Fatah scrambling to catch up.

Soviet Shadow Over Russia

With less than a year remaining for parliamentary and presidential elections in Russia, human rights activists and opposition forces have become targets of political intimidation and frequent harassment by law enforcement agencies. They see an effort to exclude them from the country’s democratic process.

EGYPT-U.S.: Revolution or Coup?

Four days after the stunning departure of Hosni Mubarak from the presidential palace in Cairo, analysts here are still trying to determine whether his ouster represents a revolution heralding the advent of democratic governance or a coup d'etat staged by the already-dominant military.