COLOMBIA: Kidnapped in No Man’s Land

"Today we are launching the new campaign for demobilisation in Caguán. Planting seeds of hope against the terror of the FARC," Colombian Defence Minister Rodrigo Rivera recently wrote in his Twitter account.

Tourism, Climate Change – Threats to Antarctic Wilderness

Too many tourists and too much climate change are the main concerns of environmental organisations and the governments of signatory countries of the Antarctic Treaty, which came into effect 50 years ago.

UGANDA-HEALTH: When Women Go Without Needed Contraceptives

When the monthly contraceptive injection that Bernadette Asiimwe, a mother of four, got from government health centres in western Uganda was out of stock for weeks, she fell pregnant with her fifth child.

Africa-Wide Trade Zone Could Boost South-South Cooperation

The plan to create a new 26-nation liberalised trade zone for Africa, spanning the length of the continent from Cape to Cairo, could open up more possibilities for South-South cooperation that would benefit Africans.

THE MAIN PROBLEM WITH GLOBALISATION IS TOO LITTLE GOVERNANCE

Globalisation dominates our era, but it is an increasingly fragile dominance. Even as global integration delivers enormous benefits -growing wealth, spreading technology, the rise of billions of people in the developing world- it also creates new risks -financial instability, economic imbalances, environmental stresses, growing inequalities, cyber penetration- that we seem to have difficulty managing.

CAN THE WORLD BE FIXED?

The world can be fixed:

BANGLADESH: Child Smugglers Risk Life for a Few Dollars

Thirteen-year-old Jamal is a Bangladeshi bootlegger who carries goods from Haridaspur town in the Indian state of West Bengal to the border district of Jessore in southwest Bangladesh, playing cat-and-mouse with Indian frontier guards every day.

ZIMBABWE: Harvesting Water for Food Security

Earth mounds running across her field hold back the water that Caroline Ndlovu uses to grow maize, pumpkins, beans and watermelons long after the short rainy season in this arid part of Zimbabwe.

INDIA: With No IT Sector, Kashmir Lags Behind

At a time when information technology has revolutionised life across the globe, Kashmir in north India lags behind the rest of the country, and the world, because it has no IT industry to speak of.

MIDEAST: A Zionist Way to Back Palestinians

To many people Rabbi Arik Ascherman would appear to be a contradiction in terms. He is an ardent Zionist and religious Jew who believes that God made a covenant with the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. But the core of Ascherman’s Zionist ideology revolves around fighting for human rights, especially those of the Palestinians.

Mauritania Could Lose Its Capital City to the Sea

For the past five years, water has been seeping out of the ground beneath parts of Nouakchott, undermining foundations and transforming some areas of the Mauritanian capital into uninhabitable marshes.

Cooperation Key to ICC Libya Warrants

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants Monday for the arrest of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, and the Libyan chief of intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, for crimes against humanity.

DR CONGO: Water Shortages Grip the Capital

In recent months, no one in the Congolese capital has been spared the effects of water shortages. Where spending entire days criss-crossing Kinshasa in search of water with battered containers in hand was previously the unhappy task of women and children, now men in suits have joined the fray.

Army Jets ‘Bomb South Sudan Villages’

Civilians in south Sudan say jets from the north are launching attacks on villages close to the border.

INTERVIEW WITH CELSO AMORIM: "IBSA IS A BEACON FOR POLITICAL STRATEGISING AND SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION"

Celso Amorim, one of the fathers of the IBSA Forum (India, Brazil, and South Africa) says in this interview that for this alliance of three major emerging powers, "Helping the poorest countries is clearly one of its callings.This gives it both its uniqueness and its international legitimacy."

Nuclear for the Poor, Renewables for the Rich?

In a debate about the future of energy, the global south wants to spend tens of billions of dollars on nuclear plants while the global north looks to spend hundreds of millions on decentralised, renewable energy.

DEVELOPMENT: Civil Society Welcomes New FAO Chief

The track record of the newly elected Brazilian chief of FAO is a promise in itself for civil society.

World Heading to Slow Motion Health Crisis

Sixty percent of all global deaths are now caused by non- communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes and lung disease, according to a report by the U.N. Secretary-General's office.

MIDEAST: Confrontation Begins Before the Sailing

Activists are engaged in a harsh confrontation with Israeli authorities days before the international ‘Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human’ sets sail towards the Gaza strip in an attempt to break the naval blockade Israel has imposed since 2007.

CUBA: Microcredit Knocks on Door…Softly

A microcredit system could begin operating in Cuba as part of reforms adopted by the government of Raúl Castro to modernise the country's socialist economic system.

Iran Executing Hundreds in “War on Drugs”

Iran is drawing international criticism for its continued mass executions of people convicted of violating its drug laws. The Islamic Republic's judiciary reported that 300 people were on death row as of May 30.