Q&A: “More Women Peacekeepers Is Not the Solution”

For two decades, women around the world have marked "Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence", which fall between the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Nov. 25 and International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Lost in Cancun

"The hurricane season officially ended on Nov. 30," a local shopkeeper told this journalist reassuringly as she entered his store with her hair blown in every direction by the wind on a drizzly, cloudy day.

UGANDA: ‘Why Waste ARVs on Sex Workers?’

Sex workers, among the populations most at risk of HIV infection in Uganda, say they are yet to realise their right to health.

Obama Pushes START Treaty to Top of Legislative Agenda

With time running out before he faces a much more hostile and Republican Congress, President Barack Obama appears to have made Senate ratification of the pending New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia his top legislative priority.

CUBA: Drag Queens and Volunteers Promote Safe Sex

Margot Parapar gets plenty of laughs from the audience with this joke: "Now the human body is divided into five parts: head, trunk, upper and lower limbs, and condom." Using his female stage name, Cuban drag queen, comedian and health promoter Oliver Alarcón includes HIV/AIDS prevention messages in his shows.

CUBA: Foreign Ministry Explains Controversial “Sexual Orientation” Vote to Activists

Gay rights advocates in Cuba received an unprecedented response from Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, in a meeting held at the ministry itself, after they complained about this country’s support in the United Nations for an amendment seen as a step backwards from the government’s position against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Rights Groups Fear Wikileaks Backlash Against Activists

Some of the United States' leading human rights organisations are concerned for the safety of human rights advocates in countries with repressive regimes, where disclosure by Wikileaks could put them in deadly harm.

SPAIN: Wikileaks Revelations Put Pressure on Justice Officials

The highest authorities of Spain's judicial system will have to explain to the Congress of Deputies their repeated refusals to bring U.S. soldiers to trial for the 2003 killing of journalist José Couso in Baghdad. The recent diplomatic cables made public by the whistleblower organisation Wikileaks reveal contacts with U.S. authorities aimed at preventing a trial.

HAITI: Popular Anger Unabated over Chaotic Polls

Furious demonstrations continued across Haiti on Wednesday following the Nov. 28 highly contested election in which thousands found themselves unable to vote.

POLITICS: U.N. Faces Hurdles As It Seeks Mediator’s Role in Burma

Barely a week after a ranking United Nations official visited military-ruled Burma, the country’s strongman has sharply reminded the global body about the challenges that await any envoy who refuses to march in step with the junta.

German Govt ‘Crying Wolf’ on Terrorist Attacks

Government officials in Germany are being accused of manipulating threats of terrorism to induce public hysteria, even while warning against such reactions. The self-contradictory approach has prompted German citizens to call the terror warnings "farcical" and "negligent."

The Roof Is Now the Field

"We grow on our roof because we are farmers but have no land now," says Moatassan Hamad, 21, from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip.

To Execute or Not, an Unfair Question

New polls in the Czech Republic showing high and growing support for the death penalty have sparked debate on the continuing use of surveys to back the retention of capital punishment.

Japan Under Fire for Abandoning Kyoto Pact

Japanese NGOs feel that Prime Minister Naoto Kan's categorical statement in parliament on Monday that his government would not under any circumstances be party to a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in that historic city in 1997, went "beyond irony".

In the End, U.S. Gets (Partial) Offshore Drilling Ban

As negotiators meet in Cancún to discuss how to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, the impacts of the oil spill disaster that unfolded earlier this year on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico are still rippling through Washington.

Wikileaks Bolsters Claim of Deadly U.S. Attack in Yemen

A diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks corroborates images released earlier by Amnesty International (AI) showing that the U.S. military carried out a missile strike in south Yemen in December 2009 that killed dozens of local residents, including women and children, the rights group says.

U.S.: Senate Democrats Push for Vote on DREAM Act

As immigrant advocate groups held marches, demonstrations and hunger strikes across the U.S. and feverishly lobbied lawmakers in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, announced he would file a motion Wednesday to permit the Senate to take up the DREAM Act, thus setting up a showdown over the controversial immigration bill.

CUBA: “Sexual Orientation” Vote in UN Panel Kicks Up Controversy

An unusually strong controversy has broken out in Cuba over a vote by the delegation from this Caribbean nation in favour of an amendment that left out the specific mention of sexual orientation in a United Nations General Assembly resolution on extrajudicial, arbitrary or summary executions.

Sudan Set to Split Despite Egyptian Moves

The U.S. has rejected an Egyptian proposal for a "confederation" between northern and southern Sudan, insisting that a Jan. 9 referendum - which will determine the fate of the south - go ahead as scheduled. According to Egyptian analysts, the move proves Washington's determination to see Africa's largest country split in two.

Unexpectedly, Israel Welcomes WikiLeaks Revelations

Embarrassing, damaging or actually helpful? Israeli reactions to the explosive WikiLeaks revelations run the full gamut.

RELIGION-CHINA: Buddhism Enjoys A Revival

Quan Zhenyuan discovered Buddhism by accident. After the owner of a vegetarian restaurant here in the Chinese capital gave her a book about the religion, she became hooked. Today, Quan is one of a growing number of urban Chinese who turn to Buddhism for spiritual fulfillment.