Kate McGough

The Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, are warning people in Gaza and the West Bank to be wary of how they use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. They say Israel is using the personal information people often post to help recruit collaborators.

A black-hulled, two-masted replica of a 19^th century slave-carrying schooner called the “Amistad” will sail into Havana harbor today flying both the U.S. and Cuban flags. The ship sails as part of the United Nations commemoration of March 25^th as the global Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Atlantic slave trade.

 

 

The biggest threat to endangered species may not be loss of habitat or illegal poaching. Conservationists are concerned that the internet currently poses the biggest single threat to endangered species.

A team of British ex-servicemen who have all lost limbs in the line of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, have announced a plan to become the first amputees to walk to the North Pole.

"The Hurt Locker” was undoubtedly the star of this year’s Oscars, winning six awards, including Best Picture. The New York Times declared it the best American feature film yet about the war in Iraq. Cinematic awards are well and good, but how true to life is the film?

Could you live without the internet for a whole week? No email. No Facebook. No TheTakeaway.org. If that thought fills you with horror then you'll feel for two families in South Korea—the “most wired” nation in the world, with the fastest broadband speeds and the highest percentage of its population online. As part of the BBC’s “Superpower” season, which is looking at how the Internet has changed the world, these two families were asked to cut themselves off from the Internet for a whole week.

What’s in a word? Well if the word is “genocide,” then it has the potential to do a lot of diplomatic damage between the U.S. and Turkey. Today the House Foreign Affairs Committee votes on a resolution to formally recognize a World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces as genocide. 

The president of Japanese car giant Toyota will appear before Congress today as part of a probe into the company's recall of millions of vehicles over sudden acceleration problems, which have been blamed for about 30 U.S. deaths.

With the recent announcement that the administration may repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," there has been much talk about issues of equality when it comes to the military. But another another group is also struggling for equal military opportunities: women. The current policy held by the Department of Defense does not allow women in ground units where they might engage in direct combat.

A BBC Investigation has uncovered evidence that criminal gangs have been cashing in on the Haiti earthquake by asking people to donate to bogus charities. The charity asks for donations to pay for relief supplies using untraceable bank transfers. 

 

 

Pro-government marchers flooded Iran's streets yesterday, on the anniversary of Iran's revolution. In fact, pro-government rallies far overshadowed opposition protests. And government supporters in Iran are dominating the online world as well. Social media channels like twitter and youtube had little more than a peep from opposition members. Has Iran's revolutionary spirit seen its end?

Siavash Ardalan is the host for BBC Persian TV's "Your Turn." Gary Sick is an Iran expert at Columbia University.

United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan say U.S. Marines will launch an assault on a Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province in the coming days. The announcement of the offensive puzzled many military analysts who said that secrecy is generally one key to the success of any military campaign.

Former Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib is starring in a new play about his three years in U.S. custody. The BBC’s Phil Mercer spoke to the cast at rehearsals and tells us about the play.

This morning the International Criminal court in the Hague is deciding whether to charge the current Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, with genocide. The ICC had already issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir in March 2009 for war crimes in Darfur, so what would these more serious charges mean?

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is making his highly anticipated appearance before a public inquiry in London today, culminating a dramatic couple of weeks which have seen several high-profile politicians publicly defend their controversial decisions to follow the United States to war in Iraq in 2003.

An international conference is taking place in London today aimed at charting a stable and secure future for Afghanistan. The focus will be on helping Afghanistan set milestones in improving its security forces, tackling corruption and building better cooperation with its regional neighbors.

This morning a parliamentary commission in France has recommended that Muslim women should not be allowed to wear face-covering veils in public service facilities such as hospitals, schools and public transport. The report says that requiring women to cover their faces goes against the French principles of secularism and equality. 

The BBC’s World Have Your Say has been speaking with ordinary people in Haiti about the disastrous earthquake that took place one week ago.

A former guard at Guantanamo Bay has reunited with two of his former prisoners from Britain after he contacted them on Facebook.

It looks like one of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s New Year's resolutions is to encourage all Russians to think twice about reaching for their favorite drink. As of January 1st...