OP-ED: Tweeting Democracy Across the Arab World
Over the past few years, the political landscape of the Middle East was wholly transformed by the diffusion of social media across the region. Accounting for 50-65 percent of the region's population,...
View ArticleReport on Iran's Nuclear Fatwa Distorts Its History
The Barack Obama administration's new interest in the 2004 religious verdict, or "fatwa", by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banning the possession of nuclear weapons, long dismissed by...
View ArticleThe Elephant in Spain's Royal Counting House
The budget for maintaining the Spanish royal household, and the use made of these public funds by King Juan Carlos, are fuelling ongoing debate as Spain endures a severe economic crisis accompanied by...
View ArticleMultilaterals Warned Not to Go Too Far, Too Fast in Myanmar
As multilateral lending agencies prepare to seriously re- engage with Myanmar for the first time in decades, observers at the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)...
View ArticleFilipino Workers Caught in Syrian Crossfire
As pressure mounts on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to keep up an uncertain truce, human rights advocates are demanding reforms to a sponsorship system that has left many migrant...
View ArticleRegularising Land Tenure in Brazil's Impoverished Northeast
Despite the abundance of natural resources on its more than 25 million hectares of land, including six million hectares ideal for agriculture, the northeast Brazilian state of Piauí has some of the...
View Article/CORRECTED REPEAT**/: Listening to the Hum of Tilling Machinery in the Sierra...
In the eastern Sierra Leonean community of Lambayama, rice paddies are carved far into the landscape before being abruptly halted by distant hills. Aside from a paved road that draws a grey line...
View ArticleU.N. Chief Says Syria Has Broken Ceasefire
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon the has called for a U.N. observer mission in Syria to be expanded, even though he says Damascus has failed to adhere to a ceasefire central to an agreed peace plan.
View ArticleBangladesh Cuts Maternal Deaths With Affordability
The Aditmari Maternity Centre (AMC) is unpretentious but hygienic, and its staff of paramedics welcomes pregnant women from the poor farming villages of this district, 375 km northwest of Dhaka.
View ArticleEurope Loses Billions to Tax Evasion
Swiss banks are facing prosecution in several European countries, accused of complicity in tax evasion and money laundering schemes, especially with French, German, and wealthy Greek citizens.
View ArticleIn Mali - Civilians Govern, the Junta Rules
Cheick Modibo Diarra has been named interim prime minister of Mali as a transitional administration takes shape, to guide the country back to full constitutional government. But despite agreeing to...
View ArticleU.N. in Last Ditch Bid to Finalise Rio+20 Action Plan
The Rio+20 sustainable development summit, scheduled to take place in Brazil in June, is billed as a key meeting of world leaders who are expected to renew their political commitment and approve a...
View ArticleIndonesia Knocks at BRICS' Door
Indonesia's keen interest in becoming the newest member of BRICS – a bloc of emerging-market nations comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – has sparked off a round of debate on...
View ArticleU.S.: Only Four-Fifths of Men's Pay for Women
Forty-seven years after the Equal Pay Act was signed into law, women in the United States are still struggling against wage discrimination in the workplace.
View ArticleGulf of Mexico Seafood Deformities Alarm Scientists
"The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything...
View ArticleGhanaian Fisherfolk Blasting Their Way to Finding Fish
Explosives, high-watt light bulbs, monofilament nets, and poison: these are a few methods fisherfolk are using to catch ever-dwindling fish stocks off Ghana's shores.
View ArticleBusiness20 Makes Its Weight Felt at G20 Meeting
The concerns of the business community basically monopolised the first day of the meeting of trade and economy ministers of the G20 group of industrialised and emerging countries in this Mexican...
View ArticleU.S.-Mexico Border Build-Up Found Excessive
While Republican politicians and other "border hawks" call for ever-tougher measures to secure the U.S.-Mexican border against drug trafficking and illegal immigration, a one-year bi-national study...
View ArticleMalaysia's New Security Act Spares Politicians
Malaysia's new internal security law is as draconian as the colonial law it has replaced, but has the saving grace that it will not target political opponents of the government, say critics.
View ArticleProtest Time in Tunisia Again
Thousands of centre-left demonstrators violently clashed with police in street battles that completely shut down central Tunis last week, left scores seriously injured and underlined the persistent...
View Article