LIBERIA: ‘Up Jumps A Girl Into the Book’

Recess is over at a small church school on the edge of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Children wearing bright blue, yellow and white uniforms stream back into the classrooms. Seated behind brown wooden desks, with sweat just drying off of their little bodies, only a few children have pens and copy books. They are learning how to read.

BURMA: Ethnic Rebels Resist Junta’s March Toward Final Frontier

An ongoing clash along the Thai-Burma border, pitting Burmese troops against ethnic insurgents, is raising the spectre of more violence in areas that the Burmese military sees as the final frontier to putting the country under the grip of one army for the first time in over six decades.

Brazilian Economy Booming, but Sliding Backwards

Although the Brazilian economy is now one of the fastest growing in the world, it cannot claim an entirely clean bill of health. Declining industrial output threatens to put the country's development into reverse, and no short term remedy is in sight.

GREECE: The Centre Is Falling Apart

The experience of walking through Omonia Square in downtown Athens can send shivers down the spine of even the calmest of visitors. In recent months, increased incidents of street crime, drug trafficking, and prostitution have turned the square into a site many citizens go to lengths to avoid.

SYRIA: Getting Away Legally With Assaulting Women

Iman Wannouss was just 21 years old when she was married off to a close relative. For the next two decades she gave up her work and raised three children in a loveless and violent marriage.

EUROPE: Legally, and Dangerously High

Eastern European youths have been getting high on "plant feed" or "bath salt" for over two years, catching up fast with Western European trends in drug abuse. Governments in the region are now scrambling to control use.

SRI LANKA: Fund Shortfall Slows Post-War Development

Some 19 months since the end of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, over 325,000 civilians displaced by the final bout of fighting between late 2007 and May 2009 have returned to live in their villages or with their relatives.

CLIMATE CHANGE: See the Green in REDD+, Say Top Leaders in Cancun

An entire body of leaders, spearheaded by U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, is now looking at REDD+ as a panacea to global warming with multiple benefits thrown in.

Educators say Africa’s children are dropping out of school because they are not being taught in their mother tongues.

Educators say Africa’s children are dropping out of school because they are not being taught in their mother tongues.

Delegates in Cancun say they hope global climate talks will get back on track in Mexico.

Rosebell Kagumire reports that negotiators have been asked to put women at the heart of any new strategy.

Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Cuidad in a bid to gain attention of the gathering ministers of environment from across the world at the climate change talks. Rosebell Kagumire is in Cancun.

Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Cuidad in a bid to gain attention of the gathering ministers of environment from across the world at the climate change talks. Rosebell Kagumire is in Cancun.

MIDEAST: New Poll Underlines Gloom Shrouding “Peace Process”

Hope among both Jewish and Palestinian Israelis that a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians can ever be achieved appears to be fading, according to two major new polls released here Thursday.

Niger Herders Count Losses, Plan For the Future

Bacharou Gorel had 300 head of cattle before the food security crisis began in Niger. Today he has only 53 left.

Debunking the Nuclear Deterrence Myth

When the horrors of the Cold War began to wane in the late 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev met in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik to discuss the "complete abolition of nuclear weapons".

U.N.’s Message to Whistleblowers: “Kill the Messenger”

A rousing battle between former Under-Secretary-General Inga- Britt Ahlenius, who once headed the U.N.'s powerful investigating arm, and her boss Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is threatening to get ugly.

Q&A: “Create a Protocol Based on Non-Emissions”

Latin America should create regional conventions to protect biodiversity and combat the impacts of climate change, according to Ecuadorian environmentalist Yolanda Kakabadse, president of the World Wild Fund for Nature International (WWF).

Senate Hawks Push Obama on ‘Zero Enrichment’ for Tehran

Five senators sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Monday warning the administration not to offer concessions in upcoming talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. If Obama takes the advice, experts say, it could sink his engagement efforts with Tehran.

CLIMATE CHANGE: India Ups Ante with Offer for Binding Targets

A rough yardstick for identifying which Asian countries make the biggest ripples in Cancún is the number of journalists who crowd around the spokesperson immediately after a press conference.

EL SALVADOR: Most Water-Stressed Country in Central America

Every night at 1:00 AM, Julio César Amaya gets up to turn on the faucet, because it is the only time that there is piped water in his neighbourhood - the poor district of San José, in the city of Soyapango, one hour east of the capital of El Salvador.

BOLIVIA: Madidi National Park and the Curse of Petroleum

Environmental organisations in Bolivia are waging a crusade to protect Madidi National Park against bids to tap into its petroleum reserves, build hydroelectric dams and promote human settlement in the country's largest nature preserve.

Kazakhstan Escapes Censure Over Rights

As Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) comes to an end, its authoritarian leadership has been accused of ignoring pledges to improve human rights and instead stifling opposition and cracking down on freedom of expression.