Predictably, some conservatives have reacted harshly to President Obama's announcement that he will work toward normalizing relations with the communist regime in Cuba after more than a half century of tensions. Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was especially critical, ...read more

How bad is North Korea? According to a new United Nations report, it's really, really, really bad.  Reports the Guardian: North Korea's leadership is committing systematic and appalling human rights abuses against its own citizens on a scale unparalleled in the modern world, ...read more

A United Nations human rights body accused the Israeli military of mistreating Palestinian children. The report stated children were tortured in custody and used as human shields during military conflicts. From Reuters: Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, ...read more

Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. (Photo credit: www.kremlin.ru) By William Boardman: Life in prison may seem a harsh sentence for reciting a poem out loud, but it’s apparently what state security demands in Doha, Qatar, where a secret court delivered this sentence at ...read more

By Mark Ames: Progressive intellectuals have been acting very bipolar towards labor lately, characterized by wild mood swings ranging from the “We’re sorry we abandoned labor, how could we!” sentiment during last year’s Wisconsin uprising against Koch waterboy Scott Walker, to ...read more