David Blunkett's white paper on asylum and immigration, 'Secure Borders, Safe Haven', published last month, will lead to further persecution of asylum seekers.
February 2002 has undoubtedly been Ariel Sharon's toughest month in power since his overwhelming election victory just over a year ago. A string of Palestinian military successes has created a climate of near panic in the Israeli press.
Radical academic Noam Chomsky threw the spotlight on Turkey's repressive laws last month when he challenged the Turkish state security court to prosecute him for sedition.
President Andres Pastrana has announced the end of the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic opened in The Hague last month to much self righteous acclaim. Commentators were quick to draw comparisons with the trial of Nazi leaders at Nuremberg. Yet far from being a testimony to the moral rectitude of the west, the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is a symbol of its moral duplicity.
Bush and Blair are preparing to launch war on Iraq, but this could unleash opposition which they might find hard to contain.
For a nation swept by a mixture of self pity, paranoia and gung-ho aggression, it's not a great surprise that the US has announced a huge increase in military spending.
Remember the recent anthrax case in the US last year which led to the deaths of five people, with 13 others being infected?
With New Labour facing yet another cash for favours scandal it's little wonder that the public consider them even more sleazy than the Tories.
Women are fighting for the right to choose in Ireland's abortion referendum.
Mike Gonzalez examines the growing instability in South America.
