HUMAN RIGHTS

After Chinese President Hu Jintao and Barack Obama show the world smiles and handshakes next week, the wait will begin for the next of the feuds that have regularly sapped trust between the two powers.

President Hu Jintao of China is coming to America next week, to meet with President Barack Obama and discuss relations between the world’s two largest economies.

Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fired his interior minister on Wednesday to try to staunch the worst unrest in decades, but fresh clashes with police broke out and witnesses said one man was killed

The United States wants a real, demonstrative commitment from China that it is serious about shifting away from export-led economic growth, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday ahead of next week's state visit by China's Hu Jintao.

The governor of key Pakistani province of Punjab who opposed the controversial blasphemy law was assassinated on Tuesday.

Top U.S. officials raised broad and specific concerns about Russia's legal environment after the conviction on Monday of one-time oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate Platon Lebedev.

Amnesty International on Saturday condemned the life sentence handed to Indian rights activist Binayak Sen over his alleged Maoist links, stating that it violates 'international fair trial standards'.

After being crowned Time Person of the Year Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in China and is reported to have visited China's top search engine, Baidu's office.

The European Union agreed on Monday to ban Cote d'Ivoire's incumbent President, Laurent Gbagbo and his aides, the BBC reported. The Gbagbo regime is likely to be slapped with harsh sanctions from the West. The sanction could also include freezing the personal overseas assets of the president and his men and issuing visa bans.

Israel’s policies in West Bank and other districts are depriving Palestinians of basic necessities while providing lavish amenities to Jewish settlements, Rights group says. Human Rights Watch, in a report released on Sunday slammed the Israeli government for what it called, violations of ‘International laws’ and Palestinian Rights. It also demanded a withdrawal from the settlements.

The new Kobe Bryant controversy relating to his contract with Turkish Airlines is a bizarre, unexpected and fascinating juxtaposition of fame, media, wealth, sports, ancient history and multi-culturalism that could only happen in Hollywood.

Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, has threatened to nationalize all British and American companies operating in his country unless Western sanctions are eliminated.

Classified US diplomatic cables leaked by whistle-blower site Wikileaks revealed that the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) briefed US officials over the continued ill-treatment of detainees in Kashmir by the armed forces and the police. Some cables stated that the government-nurtured militia committed brutal human rights abuses including extra-judicial killings, rapes and extortion of Kashmiri civilians suspected of harboring extremists in the Valley.

The U.S. Commerce Department should open a privacy office and work to develop voluntary but enforceable codes of conduct for data companies and advertisers tracking consumers on the Internet, said a report by the department's Internet Policy Task Force.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter sparked controversy with his response to gay rights groups' criticism of FIFA, when he joked that the gay fans travelling to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup should refrain from any sexual activities.

Dictatorships are faster and more efficient than democracies, which can be bogged down by long-drawn out debates among deeply polarized political parties who can't seem to agree on anything.

Norway's Nobel committee held its Peace Prize awards ceremony on Friday without the award's recipient, human rights activist Liu Xiaobo.

India and the European Union announced a breakthrough in their free trade talks on Friday. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the free trade agreement (FTA) could be signed in 2011, after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the 11th EU-India summit in Brussels.

Julian Assange was refused bail by UK's Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday, where the charges were read out to him a short while ago, setting off a judicial process leading to his possible extradition to Sweden.

Julian Assange appeared at UK's Westminster magistrates court a short while ago, where the charges were read out to him, setting off a judicial process leading to his possible extradition to Sweden. The Sky News said Assange had sought Australian consular assistance and that staff of the Australian High Commission were with him inside the court.

Global law firm Clifford Chance has denied the charges of discrimination slapped against it in a lawsuit filed by a former associate in connection with 2007 layoffs.