Edinburgh Peace and Justice Resource Centre

Scottish politics have been in a sense of disbelief since the UK general election. The Con-Lib Dem coalition government is being slowly assessed by the main two parties north of the border, SNP and Labour.

David Marples: Why did you decide to run for President?

Yaroslau Romanchuk: I have  a clear understanding of what and how we need to reform Belarus. I have strength, energy and determination. I have a team of professionals, who will form the skeleton of a future government. I have the support of organizations and structures from over 20 cities nationwide. The polls show 51% of Belarusians are ready for a new president. Indeed, 40% want that new president to be an economist.

When the editor-in-chief and Director General of the BBC goes to Downing Street and is apparently caught in flagrante with the government of the day, how can, and how does, the BBC report on the story. Mark Thompson, the DG, was photographed coming out of Downing Street with scribbles on his note-paper describing how the corporation was going to be covering the government's program of cuts.

The announced end of United States combat-operations in Iraq on 31 August 2010 marks an important moment in the story of Washington’s involvement in the country since the armed overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in early April 2003. It also highlights the profound mismatch between the expectations of the George W Bush administration that led the invasion and Iraqi realities, then and now.

Six people, including two children, were killed yesterday in Mapuso, the capital of Mozambique, during riots over rising food prices. The fatalities allegedly occurred when police opened fire on demonstrators in the capital, who were protesting rising food prices.

With voting in the Labour leadership contest underway, David Wearing examines why the Iraq war was such a fundamental call which has much to teach us about a future leader's judgement.

Measured by the significance of their consequences, two key policy judgements are likely to shape the way the New Labour government of 1997 to 2010 is perceived by future historians.

Since I first heard news of the proposed Commission of Inquiry into the execution of twenty-nine citizens of Sierra Leone in 1992, I have wanted to write about it. On the other hand, I didn't want to re-open my mind to reflect on the impact of the war on Sierra Leone. Continually floating between fear and doubt, I asked myself: can I say something or should I shut my mouth? I wondered: should I speak up for the little ones (the children and youth), myself at age ten, thrown into the pit of hell for a conflict I did not know anything about or contribute to?

As the endgame in Afghanistan begins to take shape, Iran has undertaken a series of political manoeuvrings to promote its interests in the war-ravaged country. By increasing its influence, the Iranian regime hopes to strengthen its domestic security as well as showing its teeth.

Only fifteen months after his historic Cairo speech, there are alarming signs that President Obama’s new engagement policy with the middle east may soon find its place in history’s dustbin. The Obama administration’s withdrawal announcement of US “combat” troops from Iraq by the end of August is nothing more than a PR campaign to rename the occupation.

In his address delivered to the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales on February 1st, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI deplored the effects of equal rights legislation in the UK on the grounds that it imposes “unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs”.