DOs ARE licensed to practice in all states to the exact same level of practice of their MD counterparts. DOs also have the same practice rights in all branches of the US military (by the way, the current surgeon general of the Coast Guard is a lady DO).
DOs have full practice rights in many foreign countries but not all. The AOA can provide you with a list of countries which have granted DOs full practice rights. Many of the countries that do not, also make it extremely difficult for foreign MDs to practice there. A glaring exception are Great Britain and countries which were under British mandate (Australia, among them), where DOs can only practice manipulative medicine. I think these regulation have more to do with local medical politics than with any questioning about the competency of US trained DOs as fully qualified physicians.
I know that "foreign practice" is an issue that comes up fairly often in this and other pre-med/med student boards. My opinion is that people are not being realistic about it. How many people you know went to madical school here and then moved to, let's say, Spain to practice, unless they were from there originally???
