Saudi Arabia and Iran Spar over Oil Embargo

Saudi Arabia will make up for any shortfall in world oil supply caused by sanctions against Iran, the country's oil minister has said, despite warnings from Iran that such a move would provoke unspecified "consequences".

EUROPE: Separate Schools for Roma Challenged

A school in Slovakia has defended its decision to segregate Roma children from other students after a court ruled the practice breached equal rights laws.

INDIA: The Tribal Show Goes On

In the eastern city Kolkata, a tourist just back from a holiday in India’s Andaman islands last week boasts he threw bananas to Jarawa tribe members and secretly photographed them when their car passed through a jungle.

HUNGARY: Civil Society Steps in as Opposition

The massive overhaul of Hungary’s political system by the conservative Fidesz party is raising fears the country’s days as a liberal democracy may be numbered. With opposition parties powerless, it is civil society that has awakened to support a more participatory democracy.

CHINA: Building a Cultural Front Against the West

President Hu Jintao of China made headlines in the early days of the new year saying China and the West were engaged in an escalating culture war, and calling on Chinese people to strengthen cultural production to defend themselves against the assault.

DEVELOPMENT: France Steps Forward With Robin Hood Tax

The decision by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to push ahead with a financial transactions tax (FTT) may be a political ploy ahead of elections, but it has the approval of many non-governmental organisations, even as support lags elsewhere.

U.S.: Burma Release, Ceasefire Hailed by Obama, Rights Groups

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama Friday hailed the release by the Burmese government of hundreds of political prisoners, suggesting that it went far toward satisfying Washington's conditions for fully normalising ties between the two countries.

MEXICO: Cross-Border Child Custody, a Legal Tangle

Mexican or foreign-born children being held by one of their parents in this or another country are caught up in a legal tangle marred by red tape and the arbitrary powers of judges, according to experts.

Iran’s Relations with Latin America Less Than Meets the Eye

Its economy hurting from sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been making a show of bolstering its ties to Latin America, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this past week making his sixth official visit to the region since taking office in 2005.

Egypt Follows Israel, Eyeing U.S. Aid Without Pre-Conditions

The United States, the largest provider of military aid to Israel, has rarely, if ever, succeeded in using its leverage to get the Jewish state to abandon its continued repression of Palestinians or halt illegal settlements in occupied territories.

LATIN AMERICA: Iran Flaunts Its Allies

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sought to freshen up his international image on a tour of Latin America and demonstrate that his country does have friends in the world, while almost every day events place him at the epicentre of fraught geopolitical tensions.

CHINA: Getting Worse in Tibet

A Tibetan ‘Living Buddha’ who set himself on fire in protest against Chinese rule died this week, sparking a vigil of thousands of Tibetans and creating fears that self-immolations are spreading.

SRI LANKA: Peacetime Can Mean Hard Times

It’s a new year, a new beginning but probably a harsher reality in Sri Lanka's former war zone. As the country enters its third year since the end of a bloody sectarian war that tore the nation's fabric apart, for many of the survivors of the worst fighting, a tough but true reality is dawning. Life in peacetime may yet be a hard struggle.

MIDEAST: Flowers Fight Their Way Out

Ayman Siam, 41, is not growing carnations as usual this year. It’s limonium and statice flowers instead because they are hardier. Given the risks of an Israeli blockade, it’s a political decision.

MIDEAST: To Go On Talking

A second meeting of Palestinian and Israeli negotiators took place this week in Amman, Jordan, and expectedly bore no tangible result – except for an agreed third round by month’s end.

PAKISTAN: New Price Tags on Stranded NATO Supplies

From a distance, the neatly stacked red, blue and orange containers suggest that business is good at Karachi’s Kemari port.

U.S.: A Decade in the Purgatory Called Guantanamo

Hundreds of protesters, dozens outfitted in orange jumpsuits and black hoods, took to the streets outside the White House on Wednesday to demonstrate against torture and indefinite detention on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. prison facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Clinton Revives Dubious Charge of “Covert” Iranian Nuclear Site

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's charge Tuesday that Iran had intended to keep the Fordow site secret until it was revealed by Western intelligence revived a claim the Barack Obama administration made in September 2009.

A Second-Term U.N. Chief Says His Convictions Remain the Same

As Ban Ki-moon launched his second-five-year term as U.N. secretary-general last week, the international community remained focused on a rash of unresolved political problems: war crimes charges in Libya and Syria, human rights violations and civilian killings in Bahrain and Yemen, continued Israeli political repression in the occupied territories, and the threat of a new nuclear weapon state in the Middle East.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Another Blow to a Fragile Democracy

The death of the president of Guinea-Bissau, Malam Bacai Sanhá, could usher in a replay of the military uprisings that have set an unmistakable seal of instability on the political life of this small West African country.

Obama Administration Edges Toward Iran Regime Change

The Barack Obama administration is increasingly giving the impression that it supports a policy of regime change against Iran - a policy that could backfire and convince Iran to build nuclear weapons.