In The News

At a 34-country meeting in Mexico, achieving agreement on a free-trade zone of the Americas seems unlikely, says this article in the New York Times. Washington's hope to achieve a Tree Trade Agreement of the Americas by 2005 faces multiple hurdles. The presidents of Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina are wary of an American-led free trade zone, arguing that their countries' prior...

Trafficking in humans brings thousands of people against their will from Southeast Asia to Australia each year to serve as sex workers or virtual slaves. To help prevent such gross human rights abuses at the source, Australia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Thailand and other countries in the region and promised to devote 8.5 million Australian dollars to an anti-trafficking...

Secularism has long been considered a fundamental feature of many European democracies. With increasing immigration from Muslim countries to France, Germany, and elsewhere, these nations have to deal with a growing minority who has a different take on ideal democracy. In France and Germany, the debate has largely centered on the question of the headscarves that are worn by many Muslim women....