One year ago on Tuesday, at least 57 men and women, including 31 journalists, were slaughtered on a grassy clearing in the southern Philippines. They were on their way to a political event, driving caravan-style through Maguindanao province's rugged, green hills when their convoy was stopped by armed men — allegedly members of a private army controlled by Andal Ampatuan Jr., the scion of the clan that rules the area. They were forced out of their vehicles, ...

The Tahrir Square slogan proclaiming that "The army and the people are one hand" will seem like so much wishful thinking to many of Egypt's youthful democracy activists now that they find themselves increasingly at odds with the transitional military government that replaced President Hosni Mubarak. This week's crackdown on media criticism of the military as an institution is but the latest indication of a parting of ways on Egypt's future: the military authorities called in a ...

Stung by the embarrassment of the discovery and death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on Monday, Pakistan's powerful military establishment is under pressure to make changes in its relationship with key allies, and in its fight against terrorism. After three days of sedulous silence on the matter, the military and intelligence leadership on Thursday shared its perspective on the Abbottabad debacle with a select group of senior Pakistani journalists — no foreign news ...

The war in Libya is not going well. Muammar Gaddafi shows no sign of giving up power. His forces' siege of the rebel-held city of Misratah has killed upwards of 1,000 people, including two Western journalists. One month in, NATO's air campaign is plagued by halfhearted commitment and intracoalition blame-passing. The rebels on whose behalf the U.S. and its allies intervened have failed to advance much beyond their strongholds in eastern Libya. Only a few inveterate optimists ...

Syria's emergency law enshrines the autocratic nature of the Assad dynasty's rule. It restricts public gatherings and the free movement of individuals, it allows government agents to arrest "suspects or people who threaten security," it authorizes the monitoring of personal communications and it legalizes media censorship. It has been in place since the 1963 coup d'tat that brought the Baath Party to power. That plot was instigated in part by Hafez al-Assad, the previous President and father ...

As a child, Stefaan Engels was diagnosed with asthma and told not to exert himself. Instead, the now 49-year-old Belgian started to run. A lot. But Engels needed a new challenge. So he decided to run 365 consecutive marathons over the course of a year, a new world record. TIME talked to Engels as he recuperated in Belgium. How are you feeling? Special. It's been four days and I've had to do interviews for the whole world. A new ...

One by one, they cracked. One European journalist abandoned his fuel-empty rental car in Fukushima, panicking at the prospect of staying a minute longer in the capital of the prefecture where the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was leaking radiation into the air. Another swathed himself in a raincoat and duct tape before fleeing the area a few hours later. Still another just started hurtling West in a car, even as the other journalists in the vehicle pleaded for him to stop ...

Much of the world was shocked and titillated by news of alleged fat-stealing murderers in the Peruvian jungle. But the story may have a much more sinister underbelly. Could the allegation of homicidal liposuction possibly be a smokescreen to distract attention from other crimes, including, some local journalists say, the existence of a death squad that may be operating within the country's national police? The existence of marauding fat stealers was made public mid-November by General Felix Murga, head ...

After 16 hours of debate, Argentina's Senate passed a controversial reform law Saturday that critics say targets media outlets critical of the government. The 44-24 vote is a victory for Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who had pushed to change the way the media operates in the South American nation after her party suffered devastating political losses earlier this year. Kirchner blamed media coverage, especially by conglomerate Grupo Clarin, for her party's defeats. The law approved by the Senate ...

The Lockerbie bomber made a brief public appearance at a hospital in Libya Wednesday, looking weak and unable to engage in what was going on around him. Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who was released from prison in Scotland last month on the grounds that he has terminal cancer, sat slumped in a wheelchair during his brief appearance. He appeared on stage at the hospital before a group of African lawmakers and some invited journalists, including Nic Robertson, CNN senior ...