Power2010's campaign to bring change to UK politics is stepping up a gear.

Video: the politics of making sure that the Web's memory will persist

Burmese military junta unveil laws for elections later this year. French navy captures 35 Somali pirate suspects. Bali bombing mastermind thought dead after shoot-out with Indonesian police. Iran calls for China to withstand sanctions pressure. All this and much more, in today's security briefing.

In the second review of the book on the rule of law by Lord Bingham, the former lord chief justice, Keith Ewing argues that far from being crusaders for the rule of law, our judges regularly fail to protect human rights

openDemocracy author Heather McRobie speaks with Ollie Brock about her upcoming novel where she looks at both Radovan Karadzic – who is standing trial for war crimes during the Serbian genocide of 1994 – and 19th-century philologist Vuk Karadzic

A shifting balance of calculation in the middle east makes Lebanon’s Hizbollah movement more confident in its strategy of “deterrence-by-terror” vis-à-vis Israel, says Robert G Rabil

While bullying (see our Soldier’s Tales) is common to all armies, the aberration that is dedovshchina in Russia’s army has a specific history and causes, argues Rodric Braithwaite. Military reform is needed to root it out.

In his final letter home from the army our conscript Tolya “finds” a mobile phone, is pursued by a mad officer and wonders what kind of man the army’s made of him

On Women’s Day in Russia you really get to see what your price tag is

Attacks on election day kill 38 in Iraq. Renewed peace effort for Israel and Palestine. US-South Korean military drills spark North Korean anger. Reprisal attacks leave at least 100 dead in Nigeria. Explosion in Lahore kills 11. All this as more, in today’s update.

Parvin Ardalan spoke to Jane Gabriel at the UN CSW about the link between a conversation with her father and her work fighting for the rights and freedom of both men and women in Iran, and why it's time the international community changed the question: how can we help?

The bliss of an egalitarian and just relationship between spouses cannot be achieved through a sheet of paper. But Cassandra Balchin writes that in Muslim contexts efforts to take a fresh look at marriage contracts is certainly a step towards this goal

Russian national pride has been badly dented by poor performance at the winter Olympics. It is being widely read as a political failure, reflecting the effects of corruption, and a regime which promotes PR over professionalism

The UK's Justice Minister says he needs no epitaph, Britain's constitution has been reformed over the last three years and the process should continue.

The Ashcroft affair underlines why taxation and citizenship – for persons physical and moral – need to be closely tied

One of Britain's best blogs is re-organising and so is OurKingdom

More than two thousand women's rights activists are in New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action for Equality, Development and Peace. The inside story is being covered daily by openDemocracy guest writers.

The British system of government and politics might be in endemic crisis, but it is not a golden era for radicals. According to 'The London Review of Books' the state of British politics is nothing to get excited about, and all small beer compared to the serious, cosmopolitan and worldly issues it focuses its attention on to.

Michael Foot, Labour's leader from 1980 to 1983, died this week. For all his personal qualities his passionate loyalty to the traditions of the Labour Party were a disaster for Britain.