A doctor makes an incision in a man's scrotal sac and, deftly wielding his scalpel, quickly removes both testicles. In the Czech Republic, that simple operation is the punishment for male sex offenders. But to the Council of Europe, the region's leading human-rights body, the procedure is "invasive, irreversible and mutilating." In a report issued last week, the council called the punishment "degrading" and demanded it be scrapped immediately. Over the past decade, at least 94 prisoners have undergone the ...

Luis Caplan served the poor of the South Bronx for decades out of a small medical office. His leg was amputated after a bout with cancer in 1990, yet he continued to work for another five years. Now, his savings has nearly been wiped out because of the economic crisis. At the age of 71, he faces losing his apartment if things don't change soon. The government bailed out the big institutions, but "what happens to the little people," ...

Days before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Asia on her first international trip, the State Department Tuesday voiced concern about an imprisoned Chinese blogger whose trial has been indefinitely delayed. "We are disturbed that prominent Chinese human rights activist Huang Qi remains in detention," acting deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid told CNN. "We call on the Chinese government to release Mr. Huang as soon as possible." Huang was detained last June after working working to help the families ...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a surprise visit to Baghdad Tuesday on a trip seen as aimed at raising his country's stake in Iraqi reconstruction and easing frictions with Washington over the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. Sarkozy, the first French president to visit the country, met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during the brief trip ahead of a tour of Gulf states. The French leader described his visit as a vanguard of French economic involvement in rebuilding Iraq and ...

President Obama appeared before a national audience Monday night to make the case for his economic stimulus plan, saying this is not your "run-of-the-mill recession." The president stressed the urgency of passing the roughly $838 billion measure, which his administration and Democratic leaders say will help pull the U.S. economy out of its current skid. "My bottom line is to make sure that we are saving or creating 4 million jobs, we are making sure that the financial system ...

When U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks, then-President Bush said the goal in Afghanistan was "to build a flourishing democracy as an alternative to a hateful ideology." Seven years, billions of dollars and hundreds of U.S. casualties later, the goals are more pragmatic and modest. The Obama administration's new special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, offered an understatement at the ceremony naming him to the post, telling the audience, "Nobody can say the war in ...