After several postponements last year, the trial of seven Iranian Bahá'í leaders began in January 2010 - an event that was immediately condemned by governments and human rights groups and activists outside Iran.
The most compelling model for the integration of the world's cultures and peoples may lie in the complexity and coordination that characterize the human body.
Although initially derided for its failure to reach a binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, December's United Nations Climate Change Conference has in recent months undergone a quiet reassessment, and many are now saying that in fact considerable progress was made in the fight against global warming.
As the largest regular global interfaith gathering, the Parliament of the World's Religions offers a chance every five years to assess new directions and crosscurrents within the interfaith movement.
How can interfaith dialogue and religious freedom flourish when one religion declares that another is not a religion? Are tolerance and cooperation only possible among people who share the same doctrinal view of the world?
When Jan Floyd-Douglass decided to buy a new car, she bypassed suitable models from many different companies - and then wrote to tell them why.
In a declaration, the 54th Commission on the Status of Women broadly concluded that much progress for women has been made since the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women. But it also stated that many "challenges and obstacles" remain before the agreements forged in Beijing are fully implemented.
At a historic first review of its record before the UN Human Rights Council, Iran found itself sharply criticized by other nations for a wide range of violations - not the least of which were its treatment of citizens in post-election protests and its ongoing persecution of Bahá'ís.
The role of the Bahá'í Faith in the modernization of Iran remains a history largely waiting to be written, according to the author of a new scholarly work about Bahá'í schools that once existed and flourished throughout the country.