For the first time in over 20 years, a Venezuelan government gave in Tuesday to the demands of students, more than 60 of whom were on hunger strike, and released or promised better conditions for members of the opposition who are in prison.

The Colombian government's greater openness to dialogue and the recent release of hostages by that country's FARC guerrillas have created a climate in which it is possible to move in the direction of a negotiated solution to an armed conflict that has dragged on for nearly half a decade.

On Monday night, Iranian security agents raided the home of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, separating him from his wife, searching his house and arresting his son, Ali Karroubi, according to the local media outlet Saham News.

As concerns mount about environmental degradation and rising inequalities, many development experts and corporate executives alike are asking whether a business as usual attitude is sustainable in a world of increasingly scarce natural resources.

A schism about the division of revenues in the world’s oldest customs union threatens to derail the process of regional economic integration in Southern Africa.

Guatemalans will go to the polls to elect a new government in September. But the failure to implement in-depth reforms in the political system, including a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, means structural changes that could improve the social and economic situation are unlikely, according to experts and political leaders.

The government has launched a programme to modernize religious schools so that students get a basic education in such subjects as math, English and even computers.

On a winter evening this January, Amarnath Pandey was returning home through a low-lit alley of a suburban town in India’s heartland state Uttar Pradesh when a motorcycle-riding gunman suddenly appeared and fired at him.

In the aftermath of Egypt's recent uprising, which led to the ouster earlier this month of longstanding president Hosni Mubarak, a number of groups have emerged under the banner of what has come to be known as the 25 January Revolution. The sudden proliferation of these movements has raised the contentious question: who now speaks for the Egyptian people?

EU pressure may force Hungary to step back on some provision of its controversial media law, but its main goal has been achieved before it even took effect: media are intimidated.