Tyrannical regimes love to hire celebrities as entertainment and PR, writes The Atlantic’s Armin Rosen, but one African ruler’s effort might have backfired.
Actress and sometimes MTV host Amanda Seales says she knew “absolutely nothing” about Equatorial Guinea when …
Bashar al-Assad’s regime must desist from using heavy weapons against its own citizens, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said today.
He told Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem that the violence in Syria must …
A leading dissident has satirized German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failure to publicly raise human rights or meet activists during her current trip to China, while references to a burgeoning “special relationship” between Berlin and Beijing have prompted criticism from …
Democracy is at a watershed, writes Patrice de Beer, a former foreign correspondent for the French daily Le Monde. Too many voters in the established democracies take it for granted, while the concept and practice are being adulterated by …
Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, once considered a rare transatlantic success story, is in danger of unraveling, writes a leading analyst. While economic crisis and the return to office of allies of former leader Slobodan Milosevic are also raising questions …
A leading Chinese dissident was freed from prison today.
Wang Xiaoning (right) served 10 years at the Beijing Municipal No. 2 Prison on conviction of “inciting subversion of state power” and remains subject to two years of post-release deprivation of …
An exhibition of paintings depicting the brutality of Uzbekistan’s prison system goes on tour this autumn, in what artist Sergei Ignatyev says is an attempt to use art in support of human rights.
Ignatyev, originally from Uzbekistan and now living …
There are five reasons why Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist regime survives, says a prominent observer.
Regional and international strategic rivalries reinforce the stalemate; the regime has exported the crisis to its neighbors, the complexity of the end game; the divided opposition; …
As Angolans prepare to go to the polls this week, “the risk of violent revolt is increasing,” says a prominent campaigning journalist, given the likelihood of a fraudulent election.
President José Eduardo dos Santos (right), who has ruled Angola for …
It is “very disturbing” that Egypt’s newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, has chosen the Nonaligned Movement’s summit meeting in Tehran as one of his first foreign trips, says the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman.
“Excuse me, President Morsi, but …