Sixteen years in a row of economic growth, eleven of them under his administration, might not be enough to win John Howard another turn at the helm. After four terms, the Australian prime minister appears to be headed toward defeat in next Saturday's elections, when the top office might pass into the hands of the Labour Party's Kevin Rudd. If Howard loses as polls predict, the loss will be due to three factors above all: voters' wish to turn the page, new approaches to managing the nation's wealth, and the presence of Australian troops in Iraq

Is Nigeria's MEND rebellion spilling into Cameroon?

On the eve of presidential elections, Lebanese politicians fail to find an agreement

The European Council calls for a revision of the ''arbitrary methods'' used against terrorism suspects

Philippines: who really was the politician murdered in the bombing on Tuesday?

The closure of the Erez crossing has trapped Gaza’s women footballers and also some ill people

People are still dying in the desert - more than one per day. But there are fewer deaths this year than last and than in 2005. For the second year in a row, the number of illegal immigrants who died on the border between the US and Mexico has gone down. In the fiscal year that ended on September 30, deaths fell by 12 percent, from 453 to 400. Two years earlier the figure was 494

A trip to the Algerian region of Cabilia, where the population lives between two fires

The US and China agree to install a direct telephone line between their military units

After losing their refugee camp, the people of Nahr el Bared ask for asylum in Europe

Soon peasants will have back 17,816 hectares of land stolen by colonists and palm tree growers

Interview with Viktoria Mohacsi, Hungarian member of the European Parliament of Roma origins

Back in Iraq after two years, since the two Simones' kidnapping and Baldoni's death. The arrival in Erbil coincides with the Asian cup winning by the Iraqi national soccer team. Scenes of the “Two banks Lions” and of the outstanding moments of the victorious match against Saudi Arabia are scrolling on the Erbil airport monitors. But what is the situation of Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan? Ngo worker Bruno Neri's reportage

The Nansen Prize, awarded to a person or organization that has made a distinguished contribution in favor of refugees, is given by the Nansen Committee of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and dedicated to the memory of Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian diplomat, winner of the Nobal Peace Prize in 1922, who fought for the rights of refugees fleeing the Russian revolution after the First World War. The 2007 award was given to lawyer Katrine Camilleri, 37, who represents the representative in Malta for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS).

In Peru, over 35 struggles underway between miners and the mining companies