MIDEAST: Israel Lands in Public Relations Nightmare
By Mel Frykberg
JERSUSALEM - Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50.
MORE >>

THAILAND: In Convoys of Red, Rural Masses Stage Historic Protest
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - An unprecedented show of force by men and women from Thailand’s rural hinterland was on display over the weekend as they poured into Bangkok in the tens of thousands to stake a claim on having a voice in shaping this South-east Asian kingdom’s national agenda.
MORE >>

RIGHTS-MALAWI: Country Not Safe for Homosexuals
By Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE - Malawi is quickly becoming unsafe for homosexuals as the country’s police service recently launched a campaign to hunt down and arrest prominent people who are suspected of being gay.
MORE >>

US-ISRAEL: Tiff or Tipping Point?
Analysis by Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - "Condemn" is not a word that rolls trippingly off the tongue of a U.S. politician addressing anything having to do with actions, however objectionable, by Israel.
MORE >>

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: 'Our Lives Are Cut Short at a Stroke'
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY - "This is a time of great tension because we know that at any moment, when we least expect it, our lives can be cut short at a stroke," Tito Gálvez, a leader in the Resistance Front for the Defence of Natural Resources and Rights of the Guatemalan Peoples (FRENA), told IPS.
MORE >>

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver
By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India - A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India’s tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise.
MORE >>

RIGHTS: Gender Confab Marked by Political Uncertainties
By Thalif Deen and Anna Shen*
UNITED NATIONS - When a two-week meeting on gender empowerment concluded at U.N. headquarters Friday, there were several lingering questions crying out for answers.
MORE >>

POLITICS-NIGERIA : In the Shadows of Men: Women’s Political Marginalisation
By Mustapha Muhammad
KANO - Ten years after Nigeria returned to civil rule women still play second fiddle in the male-dominated politics of Africa’s most populous nation, women politicians and activists say.
MORE >>

DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Are Women the Magic Bullet for "Electoral Apathy"?
By Mohamadou Houmfa
YAOUNDE - A support network for women's political participation, is challenging head-on what it calls "electoral apathy", after noting a growing trend in electoral abstention.
MORE >>

RIGHTS: Guatemala, El Salvador Ordered to Heed Rulings
By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR - Guatemala and El Salvador have a terrible record in terms of compliance with the recommendations and sentences handed down by the inter-American human rights bodies on cases involving appalling abuses like forced disappearance, torture and massacres committed during the armed conflicts in the two Central American countries.
MORE >>

Next >>