When incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived at parliament by helicopter to take the presidential oath in front of the members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the setting resembled a country under military rule.

Five social activists and community leaders opposed to the construction of coal-fired thermoelectric plants near fishing villages in northern Chile filed a complaint with the prosecution service denouncing that they had received anonymous death threats warning them to stop their struggle.

A huge public protest on Aug. 1 calling for the repeal of the Internal Security Act, a law that the authorities have used to jail extremist and legitimate political opponents alike without trial, was broken up using brute force.

The civil war in Darfur, a six-year conflict that has killed up to 300,000 Sudanese civilians thus far, is now virtually out of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s hands.

Hope has once again returned to Sri Lanka’s resplendent beaches. Everyone, including hoteliers, boat operators, and beach boys, are hopeful that the end of a three decade old civil war will herald better fortunes.

Egypt's pollution problem is a potential goldmine of foreign revenue - if the country can tap into the lucrative international carbon trading market.

Internet and mobile phones have spawned a new kind of marriage in the Gulf.

A recent meeting between Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Kurdish President Massoud Barzani appears to be a crucial step in lowering tensions in the country, but it has also prompted questions as to whether the two leaders can put an end to their differences.

Arnoldo Ramón Virgilio’s legs are of little use to him, but he has a way with words that more than makes up for any physical limitations. He’s one of the outpatients at the 'América Labadí Arce' Medical and Education Centre, which provides health care and rehabilitation for the disabled in this city in eastern Cuba.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed concern this week over the treatment received by indigenous communities in Peru.