POLITICS-US: Case Challenges E-Voting’s Constitutionality

A case brought by election integrity advocates in Georgia claiming that unverifiable electronic voting, or E-voting, is unconstitutional could spell trouble for the controversial practice, as it heads to the Georgia Supreme Court for a ruling.

MIDEAST: Non-Story Sets Off Ripples of Trouble

It's not so much the proverbial making-a-mountain-out-of-a-molehill, but Israel finds itself climbing out of a stinky dung heap and onto a slippery diplomatic minefield.

LATIN AMERICA: Investigative Journalists Show Their Mettle

"One way of ensuring the future of journalism is to improve content quality, and this means investigating what is deliberately hidden, like corruption," said Gerardo Reyes, a reporter for the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald, on a visit to the Peruvian capital.

SRI LANKA: With End of War, Media Shifts Focus

These days, the front pages of mainstream Sri Lankan newspapers are dominated by reports of clashes between two Muslim groups, the drama of two baby elephants separated from their mothers and government efforts to ban porn sites and curb adult-only movies. This shift in news focus is a radical departure from the days when newspapers were choked with war coverage.

TRINIDAD: Critics Accuse Govt of Wanting to Curb Press Freedom

The Trinidad and Tobago government is finding itself against the wall amid allegations that it is attempting to curb press freedoms in this oil rich twin island republic.

CHILE: The Journalist Who Caught His Own Killer – On Film

Leonardo Henrichsen turned his film camera on the soldier who was aiming at him and held it steady until he was shot to death. But the justice system never caught up with the killer of the Argentine journalist, murdered 36 years ago in Chile while he was filming a military uprising for Swedish television.

MEDIA: U.S. Rights Groups Condemn Closure of Venezuelan Radio Stations

Several U.S. rights groups condemned the closure of 34 radio stations, as well as the proposal of restrictive media legislation, by Venezuelan authorities Monday.

MEDIA-ASIA: Editorial Cartoonists Turn to Pens – and Mice

Against the backdrop of challenges ranging from the global financial crunch to the popularity of new media, editorial cartoonists are drawing up ways to be creative in more ways than one.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Publics See Warming as Urgent, Govts as Failing

A poll of 19 nations released here Wednesday reveals that majorities in most countries believe climate change should be a high priority for their governments, but relatively few thought that their leaders were doing enough about the problem.

MEDIA: Mr. Al-Jazeera Goes to Washington

The director of the Arab satellite television network al-Jazeera, Wadah Khanfar, is in Washington this week for the first time, part of a brief tour of the U.S. that will also take him to New York.

EGYPT: Bloggers Fly Into Security Trap

Cairo's airport has been unusually busy the past month as Egypt's security apparatus steps up its campaign against online political activists.

CAMBODIA: Government Pulls Out Legal Weapons Against Dissent

These are tough times to be either a journalist or an opposition politician in Cambodia.

EUROPE: Not the Language to Speak

A controversial new law on foreign languages in Slovakia branded discriminatory and totalitarian by critics is fuelling tensions and destroying trust between Slovaks and ethnic Hungarians, political analysts have warned.

BALKANS: Media Could Be in the Dock Over War Crimes

Journalists are in the dock now for their role in provoking the wars of the 1990s across former Yugoslavia that left more than 100,000 dead.

MEDIA-CHINA: News of Ethnic Strife Skirts Chinese Censors

The story of ethnic strife engulfing China's far-western province of Xinjiang may have been relegated to the inner pages of the country's state-controlled newspapers, but this time, the government could barely suppress the outflow of information.

IRAN: Censors Fail to Silence Cyber-Activists

To mark the tenth anniversary of Iran's student uprising in 1999 amid the continued rejection by many voters of the results of the disputed Jun. 12 election, student activists issued a national call to protest last week.

POLITICS: Negative Views of U.S. Persist Despite Faith in Obama

A new survey of global opinion reveals strong negative feelings toward U.S. foreign policy, even as an average of 61 percent of those polled have at least some confidence in President Barack Obama to make sound decisions.

CHILE: Alternative Media Have Their Network

The recently created People's Media Network of Chile seeks to forge links that will strengthen newspapers, web sites and radio and TV stations that give a voice to those who are basically ignored by the mainstream media.

POLITICS: Obama Still Buoyed by Extraordinary Global Popularity

Six months into his new job as president of the United States, Barack Obama inspires more public confidence than any other political leader, said a new WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) poll released here Monday.

CULTURE-MEXICO: “New Seven Wonders” Win Falls Flat

The Mexican government spent time and money in 2007 to get the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza declared one of the "new seven wonders of the world" in a contest organised by a Swiss-Canadian businessman. But winning has failed to deliver the desired results.

TRADE-MAURITIUS: Paradise Island, Pirates’ Den

Pirated goods - from music and vehicle parts to clothes, perfumes and software - are sold at ridiculously low prices on the streets or in local shops. This is big business in the paradise-like island state of Mauritius.