At the beginning of the year, few would have predicted that Britain and the United States would be involved in another military intervention. Britain, the United States and European nations were – and still are- cutting their defence budgets.

A NATO representative called on Tuesday for women to be allowed greater representation in international negotiations and conflict resolution. "Women still remain underrepresented at all political levels," Assistant Deputy Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Dr. Stephanie Babst said at a video news conference.

Rumor has it that when Canadians travel abroad, especially in the Middle East and increasingly in Western Europe after the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq, they tend to wear something authentic to the distant corners of their country to recognize each other as true Canadians in foreign lands.

The United States Thursday called on the UN Human Rights Council to dump Libya and consulted key allies on imposing sanctions, accelerating the international drive to halt Moamer Kadhafi's brutal protest crackdown.

The curious reality is that the 15-nation [Security] council is frequently unwilling to formally acknowledge that it is meeting to discuss the many security crises that land on its door. The problem is that once an issue is officially "placed on the agenda" of the Security Council, it's hard to get it off, granting the U.N. Security Council an open-ended opportunity to play a role in the affairs of a politically sensitive or unstable region.