Paula Ettelbrick - After the New Jersey court ruling on gay marriage last week, this question has come again to the political fore in the U.S. There, an increasingly successful gay rights movement battles a Republican political-religious alliance in an epic conflict. Around the world gays are viscously persecuted. It is critical that opposition to same-sex marriage does not add fuel to the fire which leads to the arrest, torture and death of homosexuals around the world.

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Donald Gregg - For now 6-party talks halt escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. But hard-liners in the Bush administration are already denouncing this development, so it is unclear how much progress can be expected in the 6-party talks.

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Chaibong Hahm - Currently, there are two schools of thought on why North Korea decided to re-engage 6-party talks. The first school contends that the sanctions regime of the UN and U.S. motivated Pyongyang.

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New Delhi, India - It is quite tempting to demonize the Bush Administration for casting the lone vote against the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty. The treaty went to vote last month at the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. There is no doubt the Bush Administration has been consistently critical of the philosophy of arms control through the United Nations. But those familiar with the multilateral diplomacy and the process of shaping up resolutions in the First Committee would avoid reading too much into a particular vote. A voting country's specific objections to clauses in a resolution are often surprising.

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Kofi Annan - If there were any remaining doubt about the urgent need to combat climate change, two reports issued last week should make the world sit up and take notice.

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Mark Weisbrot - Imagine Osama bin Laden visiting the United States ten or 15 years from now, telling Americans who to vote for if they want to avoid getting hurt. It would never happen, but in Nicaragua something very similar happened in the run-up to their election on November 5.

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Lamis Andoni Doha, Qatar - There is a dangerous lack of trust in Lebanese politics. Hezbollah is convinced that the March 14th alliance is "conspiring against it". And Hezbollah's primary political card today is to expose this alliance as a proxy for French and American interests.

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Bashir Goth | Somalia/UAE - "Peace and Islam" was the rallying cry of the Somali Islamists three months ago. Now these same people are capturing more land, invading towns, and slaughtering wounded combatants in their hospital beds. What happened?

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Amar C. Bakshi - The Arabic news network Al Jazeera just launched its English-language channel today. According to the station's Director General Wadah Khanfar, its goal is to "revolutionize TV news by giving voice to the oppressed South." This sounds ambitious. Will Al Jazeera English live up to it? Watch a clip below and tell us what you think.

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Greg Grandin - Both Hugo Chavez and George Bush made it clear who they wanted to be Nicaragua's next president. But Chavez never threatened to punish Nicaraguans if they didn't vote his way. Unlike Washington, Caracas offered all carrot and no stick. Their different approaches speak volumes to why the U.S. is so distrusted in Latin America.

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Swati Mylavarapu - Joseph Kabila has won the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But with discontent warlords, a disgruntled challenger, and proxy wars waged on its soil, what's a young leader to do?

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Sameer Padania | Malaysia - When the Malaysian police started accepting crime reports sent in by members of the public via cell phone, they never expected their own misdemeanors to one day be caught in the frame.

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Katherine Southwick - Joseph Kony, the rebel leader in Uganda who rapes, murders, and abducts children has been indicted by the International Criminal Court. He says he'll help restore peace if charges against him are dropped. Should justice be sacrificed for peace?

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Jacques Saleh - Hezbollah keeps bullying other communities into policies that just aren't in their interests. How long can this go on? Can Lebanon be prevented from tipping into full-scale civil war?

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Mark Weisbrot - Ecuadorians went to the polls on Sunday. Leftist economist Rafael Correa is leading billionaire banana magnate Alvarao Noboa, the richest man in the country. The young Correa could finally undo Washington's failed economic prescriptions in the country and bring change.

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Zeyad A. - To grasp how dire the situation in Baghdad has become over the last few days, here is a sampling of posts to Iraqi message boards where people ask for instructions on how to defend their neighborhoods from marauding militiamen.

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Lawmakers and cabinet members allied with Shiite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr pulled out of the Iraqi government this morning. But in truth, Sadr was never really in this supposed "government of national unity" in the first place -- except to grab off the spoils of power. His reported departure will have the useful effect of clarifying choices for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush as they sit down for a summit meeting today in Amman, Jordan.

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Ahmed Rashid | Peshawar, Afghanistan - The NATO summit at Riga has failed to resolve long standing problems within the military alliance in dealing with the crisis in Afghanistan. Some member states refused to provide additional troops to the 32,000 strong NATO force, while other states which already have troops in Afghanistan refused to end restrictions on how and where those troops can be deployed by NATO commander General David Richards. Moreover NATO forces are still short of critical equipment including helicopters.

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