In the searing heat of the desert near the Saudi border, the sound of heavy artillery echoes across the mountains every few minutes, hammering the ears of Askar Ragass and her terrified family.

'Nobody can usurp the right to determine the fate of the nation on their own - not the Palestine Liberation Organisation, nor anyone else. It is the will of the Palestinian people that must determine our future,' declares Hamas political leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh.

Along with 'canal' and 'dyke', young people visiting this city will learn some other interesting words in a very short time - words such as 'cannabis', 'bong', and 'marijuana'. The words are hard to avoid, especially in the tourist area that boasts a museum devoted to 'hash'.

'I'm being watched all the time. I am considered an organiser. Between noon and 2 p.m., I am allowed to go out of the monastery. But then I'm followed,' Buddhist monk U Manita said. 'I'm prepared to march again when the opportunity arises. We don't want this junta. And that's what everyone at my monastery thinks as well.'

Angelica Mucchi-Faina, psychology professor at the Perugia University, thinks that 'in Italy you cannot even talk about equal opportunities for women in politics.'

Four ministers out of 21; 193 parliamentarians out of 952 (upper and lower houses); no party leaders. Why are there so few women in Italian politics?

Just ahead of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, two human rights organisations asked the international media to seize what they termed a crucial opportunity to hold him accountable for post-election violence in Iran.

Ever since he literally blazed into the lives of Trinidadians when he led more than 100 armed followers in a failed attempt to remove the A.N.R. Robinson government in 1990, radical Muslim leader Yasin Abu Bakr has been able to taunt the country with impunity.

Why should we abolish nuclear weapons? This apparently naive question seems to have become a matter of debate, writes Hiromichi Umebayashi, founder and special advisor of Peace Depot, Inc. Japan.

The theme of a radical reform of the financial system, central to the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression,does not appear on Obama's agenda writes Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of IPS.