China is in the midst of what many overseas scholars say is its harshest crackdown on human rights and civil society in decades, marked by officially-sponsored paranoia about foreign forces… Read more »
Armenian authorities have arbitrarily detained dozens of people linked to the ongoing, largely peaceful, protests and beaten many of them, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities also have pressed… Read more »
Violent conflicts pitting Sunni against Shiite and vehement rhetoric from Syria to the Gulf have led many to view the Middle East as inescapably sectarian, notes Bassel F. Salloukh, an… Read more »
Scenes of protesters confronting army tanks quickly claimed the world’s attention last month when Turkey’s military staged a coup attempt — and the ensuing crackdown has sparked worldwide concerns, analysts… Read more »
To thwart widespread expectations that more open relations with the West would follow the signing of the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program last year, Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly warned… Read more »
Zimbabwe police fired warning shots and teargas as a protest strike against President Robert Mugabe’s economic policies gripped the country on Wednesday, closing businesses and crippling public transport, AFP… Read more »
Corruption is a pervasive problem in many societies and has the effect of undermining public confidence in democratic institutions, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard today. “All countries, to one… Read more »
Venezuela‘s opposition’s campaign to gather enough petition signatures to recall President Nicolás Maduro has passed the first stage after enough of the signatures were ratified through the scrutiny process, reports suggest…. Read more »
In Central and Eastern Europe, conservative nationalist governments in Hungary and Poland are causing alarm in western European capitals that democracy itself is under sustained challenge in the post-communist half of Europe,… Read more »
Russian authorities have launched their first criminal case against a rights activist for failing to comply with Moscow’s controversial “foreign agent” law, the activist told AFP on Tuesday: Valentina Cherevatenko,… Read more »