The debate on legalizing polygamy has returned to Kyrgyzstan. The issue has come before the parliaments of all the Central Asian states -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. 　　Polygamy is practiced in all parts of Central Asia. For centuries Islamic law guided how societies in this region behaved and... More

　　After more than 13 months of talks, Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders have failed to reach a compromise on the future of the disputed province of Kosovo. 　　The two sides were discussing a UN proposal that offers the trappings of statehood, including a constitution, flag and national anthem, under a... More

　　Many ethnic Kurds and Turks hope that an ongoing investigation into an undercover organization may help explain hundreds of unsolved murders, disappearances and bombings which rocked Turkey in the early 1990s. 　　State prosecutors allege that a highly-secretive group - 'Ergenekon' - was responsible for many unsolved, high-profile killings in Turkey... More

　　Fayez Shweikh, one of Gaza's up-and-coming businessmen, shakes his head as he considers his mixed fortunes. 　　In the past year, he had significantly increased his household income by investing in a black-market, "tunnel" economy, which relied on smuggled goods siphoned through underground passages between Egypt and Gaza. 　　Israel has always... More

　　The deadly blast in Islamabad was a revenge attack for what has been going on over the past few weeks in the badlands of the North-West Frontier. It highlighted the crisis confronting the new government in the wake of intensified US strikes in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.... More

　　Prisoners are being summarily executed in the government's high-security detention centre in Baghdad. 　　Like all wars, the dark, untold stories of the Iraqi conflict drain from its shattered landscape like the filthy waters of the Tigris. And still the revelations come. 　　The Independent has learnt that secret executions are being... More

　　Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste. 　　The ransom demand is a means of "reacting to the toxic... More

　　The Red Cross is warning that despite some improvements in security in Iraq, the condition of the country's infrastructure remains dire. 　　In a statement issued from their headquarters in Geneva, the Red Cross said it was particularly concerned about poor water supplies. 　　It estimates that over 40% of Iraq's civilian... More

　　Iraq's medical professionals have reacted with caution to a government waiver that doctors be allowed to carry arms for self-defense purposes. 　　The Baghdad government is hoping the arms initiative will improve security conditions to lure doctors who now reside in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf back to the country.... More

　　As the Iraqi parliament continues to debate the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa), residents of Baghdad are urging the government to tear down the walls which separate their neighborhoods. 　　Iraqis say the walls were designed to consolidate sectarianism and establish a number of cantons; now that security has improved,... More

　　Gaza Strip residents are going back to the days of kerosene stoves and firewood-gathering as Israel's blockade of foreign aid supplies of fuel and food bites much deeper. 　　Bakeries in the territory are now using low-quality grain or animal feed to produce bread. 　　Israel closed border crossings to Gaza although... More

　　More Afghans are being detained without trial, with poor people or those without powerful connections, the most common victims, unable to pay bribes to secure their release, the United Nations said on Monday. 　　Afghanistan is emerging from nearly 30 years of war and its judicial and law enforcement systems are... More

　　The US-led force's $100bn effort to rebuild Iraq has failed amid bureaucratic quarrels, ignorance of Iraqi society and violence in the country, the New York Times says, quoting a US federal report. 　　The newspaper said on its website on Saturday that it had obtained a draft copy of Hard Lessons:... More