GENEVA, Switzerland — Mu Sochua, one of the more impressive speakers at “Courage to Lead,” a recent gathering here of more than 40 women involved in human rights, is not a woman to be taken lightly. After spending the last 20 years fighting for women's rights and against both human trafficking and general corruption in Cambodia, the deputy in Cambodia's leading opposition party has embroiled herself in a head-on clash with the country's perennial Prime Minister Hun Sen. The spat now seems likely to land her in jail.

TOKYO, Japan — Two Greenpeace Japan activists pleaded not guilty on the first day of a trial on Monday to theft and trespass charges. But this is no simple expression of alleged Japanese crime and punishment. The high-profile case relates to a box of whale meat the activists say they took in order to expose widespread corruption in the publicly-financed “scientific” whaling industry.

PARIS, France — For world-class calamities, a United States military airlift is the best way to bring massive relief. Yet when minutes matter, it is often the greatest obstacle. The swarm of troops that choked off Port-au-Prince’s crippled airport as they set up camp was like firemen rushing to a blazing building and then stopping for lunch.

"They don't belong here," says Sultana pointing to three children digging through a mound of wet trash for small bits of paper or plastic. Her own two children, a ten-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, go to school, and will never come here, ever, she says. "When they want to know where mummy and daddy work we tell them what we do, but we don't bring them here to see it.”