Politics

Practicing journalism in Zimbabwe has become a crime punishable by death.

Last year, my colleague Edward Chikomba learned this the hard way. I still can't believe he's gone -- the jovial spirit, the burly tummy, the camera bag he always wore slung backward over his shoulder. He worked for the country's only TV station, the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

On a sun-baked plain four hours' drive south of Kathmandu, the capital, a platoon of Maoist fighters in jungle fatigues is on the move. A cry of "lal salaam!" ("red salute!") pierces the air as the drill instructor orders a halt, and the soldiers make thrusts with their mock-up wooden rifles. Even in the haze of dusk, it is clear there are still two armies in Nepal.

Mrs. Plaxeded Mutariswa Ndira was getting her children ready for school a few weeks ago when she heard a scuffle in the bedroom where her husband was still sleeping.

"Some men ordered him out of bed," she says. "He refused, saying he wanted their IDs. He was grabbed naked and shoved into a vehicle that speeded off. My husband was screaming and wrestling."

Four years ago, Hardik dropped out of his university-level science studies in the Nepali capital, Katmandu, to join Maoist insurgents in the bush. Admittedly scared sick at first, he said the rigors of guerilla warfare hardened his resolve to oust a ruling monarchy hopelessly out of touch with Nepal's poverty.

Today Hardik is one of more than 23,000 members of the People's Liberation Army idling in U.N.-monitored ceasefire camps, where weapons are locked away and his free time is spent doing English grammar exercises or playing the flute.

At 0500 on a mountaintop in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Michel Sibilondire struggles to start his generator.

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Nepal's Maoist movement has no operational links with the leftist insurgents in India who also call themselves Maoists, the former guerilla army's second-in-command said, dismissing the possibility of any future assistance for their political brethren to the south.

"Political revolution is fixed within a border and we do not export it," Commander Ananta said in an interview with World Politics Review earlier this month at Maoist party headquarters here. "The people of an independent country must decide themselves."

Colombian cocaine cartels are tapping into pipelines in Ecuador, stealing thousands of gallons a day of "white gas" that can be used to process raw coca into cocaine.

A flux of Colombian refugees escaping FARC threats into Ecuador heightens humanitarian concerns as well as security ones, intensifying tensions along the Colombia-Ecuadorean border.

Kathmandu and Chitwan, Nepal - Nepal's peace process has advanced with relative stability in recent weeks despite major changes it is bringing in the country.

Indigenous residents of Ecuador's Amazonian rainforest have filed one of the largest environmental suits against an oil company, accusing U.S.-based Chevron of contaminating their soil and waterways.

Mike India, a one-man radio operation, spends his nights on the mic trying to convince Rwandan rebels to lay down their arms and go home.

Adding to the tensions along its border with Colombia, Ecuador filed a lawsuit in The Hague, claiming it’s been affected by U.S.-funded spraying of herbicides to kill coca plants in Colombia.