As the debate on globalization and its consequences reaches its peak, few are better prepared to offer a defense than the man at the centre of the storm. Former Director-General of the WTO, Mike Moore, offers a vivid and provocative account of why globalization and democracy offer the best hope for the future of humankind.

The debate in this country over health care reform has gotten out of hand. Congressmen and insurance operatives are stoking up anger and fear bytelling lies to people. People have come to believe that Obama is going to kill their grandma with his health care reform or that he is goint to impose socialism on the country.

Tens of thousands of government critics are gathering in the Georgian capital and other major cities to demand the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili and to call for early elections.

Protests begin in Pakistan despite ban. Emergency rule and mass arrests leave Pakistan on the brink. As two political titans duel amid a crackdown who is the good guy? VOA reports.

Authorities in Baku have banned international radio stations from broadcasting on national frequencies. Beginning January 1, broadcasts by RFE/RL, the BBC, and Voice of America will be terminated in Azerbaijan, where radio remains one of the primary sources of information.

Melbourne, Australia — 9 December, 2008— During his first weeks in office, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called for a national summit in Canberra on the 19th- 20th April 2008 to explore the challenges facing the nation up to 2020.

Successful democracies depend on an informed, thoughtful, and engaged electorate. However, social scientific research shows the American electorate to be poorly informed and often disengaged.

A system of checks and balances in government is usually regarded as a good thing, except when it comes to the probability that a nation will stop its use of government-sanctioned torture, according to a Florida State University study.

As the Presidency stated on 28 June 2008, the EU deeply regrets that the Zimbabwean people were unable to vote freely in the run-off presidential elections, which the UN Secretary-General had asked to be deferred. It reiterates the unacceptability of the campaign of violence which the UN Security Council condemned on 23 June and which turned the election into a denial of democracy.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is calling for a swift transition to democracy in Zimbabwe. Barosso says Zimbabweans have voted for change from President Robert Mugabe's rule.

Bhutan is gearing up to become the world's newest democracy with the country's first-ever national elections on Monday. The elections are a bold step for this isolated and traditionally Buddhist Himalayan kingdom toward the 21st century.

A new study by University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management professor Paul Vaaler indicates that when emerging-market countries hold elections they may be determining more than their new government.