On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., thus launching the modern-day civil-rights movement. Monday, Feb. 4, is the 100th anniversary of her birth. After she died at the age of 92 in 2005, much of the media described her as a tired seamstress, no troublemaker. But the media got it wrong. Rosa Parks was a first-class troublemaker. ...

On February 1st the Chilean humanist Thomas Hirsch took part in the International Conference for Peace that took place at Munich, called "Non violent ways of regime change." We publish here the transcript of his words: "The name proposed for this conference is already arguable. Firstly, as a reflection rather than a criticism, if I am asked to talk about nonviolent regime change is because the basic assumpt ...

“French military and Malian government forces are restricting access to conflict areas for members of the media, making covering the situation a major challenge” By Peter Townson*, 23/01/2013 - As violence continues in Mali, the national and international media are finding it increasingly difficult to provide quality coverage of the situation. The primary reason behind the challenges is the fact that journa ...

The Argentine media group Clarin obtained an eleventh-hour ruling yesterday delaying the application of a section of the country’s new media law which would have forced it to give up some of its broadcasting licences. The Civil and Commercial Court extended the deadline for the application of article 161 of the Audiovisual Communication Services (SCA) bill, known in Spanish as the Ley de Medios.   The decis ...

By Fabiana Frayssinet A Nigerian diviner dances and sings next to a Brazilian priest of the Candomblé religion, brought to this South American country by African slaves, that is now being rescued from oblivion in school texts on national history and culture. He is Jokotoye Awolade Bankole, a 55-year-old tribal prince from Onpeu-Ogbomoso in the southwestern Nigerian state of Oyo, and a devotee of Ifa, a divi ...

We reproduce here an article by Mel Frykberg for IPS. Photograph: Tahrir Square, the cradle of Egypt's revoltution, has become also a place for harassment of women. Credit: Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS. CAIRO, Nov 1 2012 (IPS) - Egyptian bullies who sexually harass women in the streets, often taking advantage of mob situations and the anonymity these provide, are getting a taste of their own medicine – and t ...

First stated by Daniel Defoe, in The Political History of the Devil, 1726: "Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed." Benjamin Franklin in 1789, gave it its current form: "'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Is death certain? Only the physical transformation of the body is, from living and breathing to inert and rejoining the recyclable molecu ...

We report here on little known facts about Malala Yousufzai, the courageous teenager shot by the Taliban for promoting women’s education. Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, now committed Human Rights campaigner, has been doing some research. When Malala was 12 she was interviewed on BBC World: “Malala: “I want to be a doctor but my father told me you have to be a politician. But I don’t like ...

The use of children as domestic workers is pervasive throughout Haiti. Though culturally accepted for generations, a new campaign has been launched to combat what is one of the worst forms of child labour. Her day starts at 4 a.m.. She wakes up before everyone else in the household. Silently, she empties the chamber pots and sweeps the floors. She draws several buckets of water from the pump down the street ...