The United Nations recently announced that internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka, housed in refugee camps since the time they fled their homes during the final and fatal offensive against the LTTE, can now go back to their homes. The questions are whether they still have homes to go back to and how safe is [...]

The debate over whether to close down the US detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba involves two basic questions. What happens to terrorist suspects after they leave the detention center at Guantanamo Bay? Can Gitmo’s terrorists be rehabilitated?
There have been reports that answer the first question. Many of the former so-called terror suspects detained [...]

Although suffering a steady and growing censorship, more and more Chinese use the Internet to express their opinion using the great ease to write good articles, and at the same time circumvent government control.
“The Chinese bloggers are the smartest in the world. In addition to writing a good and interesting article, they should think how [...]

Cuba responded positively to the U.S. proposal to reopen negotiations on Cuban immigration to the United States, halted in 2004 by President George Bush. The U.S. offer was a new gesture of openness of the Obama administration which attempts a cautious and gradual approach with the Castro regime. Cuba also accepts the U.S. proposal to [...]

US President Barack Obama has been wanting to shut down the US prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba but there is no money for it. A budget of $80 million is needed for the shutdown. US lawmakers denied this needed funding. It seems that politics got in the way of popular sentiment.
Obama is being criticized for [...]

A recent report by Freedom House, an organization founded by the U.S. government and private groups, reveals that freedom of expression and the right of expression continue to decline throughout the world for the seventh consecutive year. Out of the 125 journalists imprisoned in 2008, half of them are behind bars in China and Cuba.
The [...]

Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa criticized the unfounded discrimination experienced by some Mexican citizens in other countries due to the fear of infection from the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, formerly known as swine flu.
At a press conference, the secretary said that she was surprised with the decision of ‘brother’ countries such as Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, [...]

Another test for the new era in US foreign relations has just transpired. The White House said that the next few weeks may determine whether it has begun a new relationship with Latin America, especially with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez who has indicated he wants to be friends with Barack Obama after finding him to [...]

Barack Obama has decided to lift restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba to ‘support the desire of the people to determine their own destiny.’ The US president has given orders to the Departments of State, Treasury, and Commerce to implement this initiative as soon as possible, including measures to facilitate communications with the [...]

Current Miss Universe, Venezuelan Dayana Mendoza, who recently visited the US naval facility located in eastern Cuba on a trip organized by the United Service Organizations (USO) thinks that Guantanamo prison is a ‘relaxing place that is quiet and beautiful.’ Mendoza was sent to Guantanamo in an entertainment tour to visit US troops and raise [...]