CONAKRY, Guinea – Just a few months ago, Guinea was a battered nation devoid of hope, ruled by an out-of-control army captain whose troops massacred pro-democracy demonstrators and raped women.Today, the West African country is on the verge of putting half a century of coups and repressive rule behind it — through a presidential election Sunday that would be its first-ever free ballot
CAIRO — Thousands of Egyptians chanting Down with Hosni Mubarak demonstrated against their country's president Friday in Alexandria , demanding an investigation into the fatal beating of a young Egyptian businessman, allegedly at the hands of plainclothes police.Joined by Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, a possible contender in next year's presidential elections, demonstrators
MADRID – Will the U.S financial overhaul push big firms to transfer business to Europe? Some say no: Europe is also working on efforts to tighten up on risk-taking, though Asia and non-EU member Switzerland still remain more loosely regulated.Now that the bill aimed at cracking down on the abuses that caused the 2008 financial crisis has been agreed on by House and Senate negotiators, anal
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA Lion of a radical political party whose members were slain by the hundreds, Manuel Cepeda was shot dead in an operation partly organized by Colombia's army.But the 16-year-old case is no anomaly in a country suffering from a simmering, half-century-old guerrilla conflict.Hundreds of cases of murder and massacres, old and new, are coursing through the inter-American justice system
KABUL, Afghanistan – Crouched in a field of opium poppies, a young Marine lieutenant pleaded over the radio for an airstrike on a compound where he believed a sniper was firing at his troops.Request denied.Civilians might be inside and the Marines couldn't see a muzzle flash to be absolutely sure the gunman was there.The lieutenant's frustration, witnessed by an Those complaints from the r
OSH, Kyrgyzstan – Gulasal Vakhitdzhanova gazes sadly at the charred remains of an ancient mulberry tree in what used to be her courtyard.All that is left of the family's belongings is a mangled bed frame.Vakhitdzhanova is one of tens of thousands of Uzbeks who have been pushed out of refugee camps in Uzbekistan, where they fled after ethnic riots, to return to southern Kyrgyzstan.This week,
AMSTERDAM – A hidden-camera video showing Jews being harassed on the street in a Moroccan neighborhood of Amsterdam has led Dutch authorities to consider combating hate crimes with decoy Jews — undercover police officers wearing yarmulkes.Enthusiasm for the unusual idea is a sign of the ongoing tension between the Muslim minority and the rest of the Dutch population over issues of i
KIGALI, Rwanda – Rwanda's electoral commission barred Hutu opposition figure Victoire Ingabire from running for president because she allegedly denied the country's genocide occurred, officials said Friday as complaints grew of a government crackdown.A global media rights group said the Tutsi-led government is crushing any opposition ahead of the August presidential elections.The group, Rep