Latin America

As Ecuador prepared to announce its decision on granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Britain threatened to raid the Ecuadorean embassy in London where Assange has taken refuge for the past two months.

Could Israel launch an attack on Iran before the U.S. election in November? On Friday, Israel’s largest-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, published an article suggesting an Israeli attack could be imminent.

The escalating conflict in Syria has magnified the refugee crisis, both internally and in neighboring countries. More than 4,000 people entered Turkey in recent days, bringing the total number of Syrian refugees there close to 60,000. There are tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in neighboring Lebanon as well.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports on his recent trip to Zabadani, a besieged Syrian town near the Lebanon border. “[Zabadani] is basically waiting for some kind of solution to happen and is yet really on the receiving end of the majority of the violence,” says Kouddous, whose latest article, “On the Ground in Zabadani, a Syrian Town in Revolt,” was published in The Nation on Monday.

We look at Mitt Romney’s newly announced vice-presidential running mate Paul Ryan’s record on women’s reproductive rights. Ryan opposes abortion in all situations, including cases of rape and incest, and opposes abortion in cases that endanger an expectant mother’s health.

One of the many records broken during the 2012 Olympic Summer Games was the number of female athletes participating from the conservative Islamic nations of Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia.

A new Obama administration policy could stop the deportation of as many as 1.3 million undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Starting on Aug. 15, students under the age of 30 may be eligible for a two-year reprieve from deportation if they meet certain conditions.

Texas is preparing to kill death row prisoner Marvin Wilson tonight despite a 2002 Supreme Court ruling against the execution of the mentally retarded. Wilson was convicted of murdering Jerry Williams during a 1992 fight.