World

  • Guatemalan peace process stalls

    MEXICO CITY — Luz Mendez is a member of the International Political and Diplomatic Commission of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). The commission, along with four commanders of the URNG, has been involved in

  • Polish doctors restrict abortions

    Polish doctors restrict abortionsWARSAW — A controversial doctors' code of ethics prohibiting most abortions went into effect on May 2, despite warnings that it could increase the death rate among women and that it violates

  • Hit squads target Swaziland democracy movement

    Swaziland is a tiny landlocked southern African monarchy dominated by South Africa. Repression and human rights abuses are overlooked by many governments and the international press. Inspired by the freedom movement in neighbouring South Africa,

  • Russian health workers fight back

    CHELYABINSK — After picketing the city administration building for 10 days, health workers in this city in the Urals region of Russia went on strike on April 20. There were predictions that their stoppage, called in

  • Los Angeles: two worlds in one city

    It should not be surprising that a central motif in the television images of the burning of Los Angeles is the car: run down, stopped, its driver hauled out and bashed or even shot, in a furious re-enactment of the original

  • International piracy

    Retail sales in the US were off 0.4% in March, which spelled bad news for Libya. Another couple of months' worth of poor economic numbers, and the bombs surely fall on Tripoli. Even by the brazen standards established in

  • Air pollution tops news in Mexico City

    MEXICO CITY — Mexico city's air pollution crisis continues to occupy the attention of the 20 million inhabitants of the worlds's largest city. In recent weeks, record-breaking ozone levels brought the issue to a head.

  • AIDS crisis looms over South Africa

    South Africa is facing a health crisis of massive proportions if the spread of AIDS is not bought under control. Estimates from three recent studies agree that a post-apartheid South Africa may find itself losing between 150,000

  • Rafsanjani organises election win

    Rafsanjani organises election winElections held on April 10 in Iran have boosted President Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's project to reorient the Iranian economy towards the west. Rafsanjani is a leader of the Society of

  • The exit — and return — of the Russian government

    MOSCOW — For a brief but dramatic period in mid-April, Russia was without a government. On April 13 first deputy premier Yegor Gaidar and his ministers marched indignantly from the chamber of the Congress of People's

  • Birthrate falls with the economy

    MOSCOW — Repeatedly in the past few months, the Russian media have carried reports detailing the sombre news: women in this country are no longer willing to bear children. The reports have noted social causes —

  • Mines laid in Solomon Islands waters

    The Papua New Guinea government is tightening its military blockade of the besieged island of Bougainville and has mounted further attacks on the civilian population. The latest escalation came to light on April