Turkmenistan's new president has said he will not rush to reform the system of government established by late leader Saparmurat Niyazov.

The United States and the European Union have called on Turkmenistan's new president to implement promised reforms.

Burma's foreign minister has told Indonesian officials that his country hopes to finish drafting a new constitution by the end of the year. The comments came as the two countries sign new agreements to expand cooperation. Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta.

Democratic gains in Southeast Asia came to a halt last year, experts say, largely due to Thailand's September coup. As Ron Corben reports from Bangkok, regional analysts say there is more to democracy than elections - but elections are still vital.

The constitutional court overturned a Kenyan law on Tuesday that required TV and radio stations to obtain an approval certificate from a censorship board before broadcasting material.

The lower chamber of Afghanistan's parliament passed a bill on January 31 that would grant immunity to all Afghans involved in war crimes during the last quarter century. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) warns that the legislation -- if approved by the upper chamber of parliament and signed by President Hamid Karzai -- could mean failure for the process of national reconciliation.

New research by political scientists challenges the belief, widespread following the hotly contested 2006 presidential election, that Mexican society is divided by deep political divisions. The findings conclude that claims of such divisions are unsupported by recent field research and that a better understanding of the state of Mexican democracy depends on improved observation of politics among Mexico's political elite-which are more polarized now than at any time since 1988.

The Gallup polling organization has found that, while Muslims say they admire democratic values, they also believe Islamic laws and democracy can exist side-by-side. Basing its findings on a survey of 10 mostly Muslim countries, Gallup said world leaders should support democracy in those countries despite the peoples' strong feeling about religion. VOA's Stephanie Ho reports from Washington.

The highest-ranking European diplomat to visit Belarus in years called today for democratic change and the release of political prisoners during a speech at Belarusian State University.

Systematic efforts to control media in countries of the former Soviet Union have intensified in 2006 indicating further erosion of civil liberties. That's the conclusion of the new "Freedom In The World" report by Freedom House, a U.S.-based organization that promotes democracy.

President Bush has called the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein an "important milestone" for Iraq on its path to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself.

The commonwealth "For Democracy and Human Rights" unifying Transdnistria, South Ossetia and Abkhazia issued a joint position that reached the UN.