Full coverage: Governance

28.04.2008 A bill to amend laws allowing workers to sue for pay discrimination on the basis of gender, race, or age was blocked Friday from debate in the U.S. Senate.

28.04.2008 Hundreds of Chileans have announced their intention to leave the Catholic Church following the Vatican's involvement in a local constitutional ruling to ban free contraception.

28.04.2008 "After eight years of Putin, the country has a rubber-stamp parliament dominated by a single party, whose only stated policy is loyalty to the Kremlin," writes Fred Weir in Moscow.

28.04.2008 Nepal Maoists owe their impressive performance to marginalised communities in the recently held elections for Constituent Assembly. It is now up to the former rebels to prove themselves and see how they can come up to the expectations of these people whose interests nobody in the past bothered to address.

25.04.2008 Over 3,000 Nigerian women die each year due to complications resulting from unsafe abortions, says a new study from a sexual and reproductive health institute.

25.04.2008 A photoessay reveals the toll 17 years of conflict, political instability, droughts, floods, and an international community struggling to provide aid has taken on Somalia.

24.04.2008 Asian governments' attempts to manage skyrocketing food prices by restricting rice exports is actually aggravating food shortages in the region, says Peter Timmer in this interview.

24.04.2008 Even as UNESCO’s latest report pans India for lagging behind in the race for achieving education for all by 2015, experts gathered in the capital weigh up the nationally sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Exclusion and discrimination remain core challenges as millions of children remain outside its fold, is the verdict.

24.04.2008 This week's closed-door meeting of leaders from Canada, Mexico, and the United States is likely to produce changes that "will favor narrow corporate interests over the public good," write trade analysts Sarah Anderson and Manuel Pérez Rocha.

24.04.2008 The Democratic Republic of Congo and armed groups must enforce a January peace treaty meant to conclude 10 years of conflict, urged 63 local and international non-governmental organizations.
From: Human Rights Watch

24.04.2008 The Burmese military's reign of terror -- which has displaced 2 million citizens -- has particularly targeted indigenous people, forcing them to flee their homes to escape compulsory labor, rape, and starvation. [Warning, this photoessay contains graphic images that some may find disturbing.]

23.04.2008 BANGKOK, Apr 23 (IPS) - A rising star within the ranks of Burma's military regime is reported to have unveiled a plan to ensure the junta gets its way at the May referendum for a new constitution, according to information revealed to IPS.

23.04.2008 Innovative Medicaid family planning expansions designed by state officials have hugely benefited the provision and accessibility of health care coverage for low-income people across the United States, says a new report from a reproductive health institute.

23.04.2008 Come May 10 and Burmese citizens will vote to endorse a constitution that took a decade and a half to be drafted. The military junta, however, seems to have its own plans to swing the tide in its favour.

22.04.2008 WASHINGTON, Apr 22 (OneWorld) - Pennies a day. That's all it would cost the United States to significantly reduce the emission of gases that contribute to global warming. What's more, the cost to businesses, families, and overall economic growth would be minimal, according to a new study released this week.

22.04.2008 WASHINGTON, D.C., April 22 (OneWorld) - Paraguayans are celebrating the Sunday win of presidential opposition candidate and progressive former bishop Fernando Lugo.

22.04.2008 Mugabe's ZANU-PF party is "using a network of informal detention centers to beat, torture, and intimidate opposition activists and ordinary Zimbabweans," reports a human rights monitor.
From: Human Rights Watch

22.04.2008 Through the stories of the Rabban and Karana families, Adam Doster relates the immense difficulties facing Iraqi refugees -- including the few who manage to receive asylum in the United States.

22.04.2008 To counter human trafficking, Indian government with support from UN agency on drugs and crime has released a manual for Delhi Police. The manual guides policemen to deal strictly with the crime and also talks of bringing about an attitudinal change so as not to subject the victims to further indignities.

21.04.2008 SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 21 (OneWorld) - About 300,000 U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or major depression. Another 320,000 veterans likely suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI), a type of physical brain damage often caused by explosions from roadside bombs.