The New York Times reports: “New York City is poised to mandate that thousands of companies provide paid time off for sick employees, bolstering a national movement that has been resisted by wary business leaders.

During the past week, more than 30,000 Americans have signed a petition urging a Nobel Peace Prize for U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, the whistleblower who was arrested nearly three years ago on charges that he provided an enormous quantity of classified documents to WikiLeaks.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied in downtown Chicago on Wednesday to protest the city’s plan to close 54 public schools, primarily in Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods.

Recent headline stories about Syria have reported that the CIA is deeply involved in the arms flows and that the rebel groups are setting up an alternative government.

The World Social Forum — a global gathering of activists and analysts — has just gotten under way in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab uprisings.

Cyprus is in effect a victim of the ‘finance curse’ in that its economy was so dependent on the financial sector.

Prisoners at the U.S. military prison camp in Guantanamo are entering their seventh week of a hunger strike and may die soon.

Despite comparative quiet in Jordan, the same socio-economic discontent that drove protests in 2011 remains a fact of life in the Hashemite Kingdom.

Prominent Democrats — including the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — are openly suggesting that Medicare be means-tested and Social Security payments be reduced by applying a lower adjustment for inflation.