The world has seen major improvements in key areas like literacy, access to clean water and infant mortality, writes Gwynne Dyer.

90 days is currently the magic number.

The chances of meeting any of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals seem remote.

Garth George writes that an expanded screening programme for Down Syndrome may go against the rights of the disabled.

Tariana Turia, co-leader of the Maori Party, writes about the foreshore and seabed debates and tides of change.

Judy McGregor argues that the 90-day period poses a threat to fundamental human rights.

Iran has sentenced a woman facing execution for adultery to 99 lashes for allowing an unveiled photo of herself to appear in a UK newspaper.

It's all very well for Time magazine to wring its hands over the wretched women of Afghanistan, but what about innocent children in Massachusetts?

News Ltd has one month to sell or close its local paper in Fiji, a spokeswoman for the country's interim government says.

Cameron Slater denied he had identified people with name suppression on his blog when he appeared in court today.

The South African Government has been accused of resorting to censorship reminiscent of the apartheid era.

The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra makes beautiful music. But one musician, who fled the Soviet Union, has been forced out on flimsy grounds, while others question the APO's management style. Chris Barton reports..

Three American hikers held in Iran for more than a year are pawns in a diplomatic game, say their families.

Continuing discrimination against Asians needs to be addressed and the high rate of Maori imprisonment is bleak, Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres says.

Washington is considering tightening sanctions against the military rulers of Myanmar, formerly Burma.