DEATH PENALTY: Final Quarter Yet To Be Convinced
By Petar Hadji-Ristic
ROME - Nine countries have taken major steps towards jettisoning the death penalty over the past 18 months, leaving just a quarter of nations left to abolish the practice, according to the 2008 report from the group Hands off Cain.
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CORRUPTION: Romania and Bulgaria In the Dock
By Claudia Ciobanu
BUCHAREST - After putting up a reformist face in order to join the European Union (EU) in 2007, Romanian and Bulgarian politicians have quickly returned to fostering corruption. And there is little the EU can do about it.
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FRANCE: 'Excited Little Boy' Takes Hold of the Media
By Julio Godoy
PARIS - The media in France, already in a heavy financial and credibility crisis, did not need yet another blow. But that is just what it got in President Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement that he will personally pick the directors of the public television and radio broadcasting companies.
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ENVIRONMENT-EUROPE: No Consensus on Saving the Soil
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS - Soil is one of the few major areas of environmental policy to remain largely outside the purview of European Union law. Humanity's survival might hinge on whether crops can continue to be grown in soil, yet just nine of the EU's 27 countries have deemed soil protection a pressing enough issue to have introduced legislation on the subject at national level.
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SPAIN: ETA on the Brink
By Tito Drago
MADRID - Police in Spain brought the Basque separatist group ETA to the brink of total collapse Tuesday after dismantling what was described as its most active cell, and perhaps the only one left after a string of major blows dealt to the group in the past few years.
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Q&A: "Humans Are Now the Primary Drivers of Our Climate"
Interview with climate expert Sir David King
BARCELONA, Spain - Humanity faces enormous challenges at the start of the 21st century, says Sir David King, Britain's former chief scientific advisor and now director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University in England.
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ROMANIA: Looking to Rome to Escape the Roma
By Claudia Ciobanu
BUCHAREST - A decision by Italian authorities to fingerprint nomads -- mostly Roma -- is supported by many Romanians, in spite of statements from Romanian officials condemning the measure as discriminatory.
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SERBIA: Karadzic Arrest Opens Doors to EU
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE - One of the most wanted men in the world, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested Monday night by Serbian security forces.
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MIGRATION-BOLIVIA: European Dream Becomes a Nightmare
By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ - His deportation order from Spain in his pocket, Juan Mercado walks the streets of Madrid for the last time as he waits to board a plane to return to the western Bolivian city of Oruro, with little in the way of savings, but "with dignity," he says clearly and firmly.
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NORWAY: Make Africa's Tragedies Comic
By Tarjei Kidd Olsen
OSLO - How do you wake up comfortable Norwegians to the distressing realities of child deaths and maternal health in developing countries? Through the comic books they so love.
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