Rebels Claim Responsibility for Syria Blast

The main Syrian rebel group has claimed responsibilty for a series of explosions in central Damascus near the hotel used by the U.N. observer mission in Syria.

Running From the Guns

As fighting rages on in Syria, thousands of civilians are fleeing the country with little more than their families and the clothes on their backs, seeking refuge on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Bangladesh ‘Fixes’ Grameen Microcredit

Laboni Vhoumik’s lingerie manufacturing unit in the Gopai village of Noakhali district, about 180 km outside the capital, is a forceful argument in favour of the Grameen Bank microcredit model that fosters female entrepreneurship and also relies on it.

Q&A: Hospitals Working to Reduce Their Ecological Footprint

Medical care is associated with images of cleanliness and good health. Today’s hospitals, however, are major sources of pollution and consume large amounts of valuable resources, like energy.

Surviving on a Meal a Day in Ghana’s Savannah Zone

In order to ensure that he and his family survive this year's failed harvest, Adams Seidu, like farmers in other rural communities in Ghana’s Northern Region, has implemented a strategy for survival. They are using what Seidu calls the "one-zero-one strategy" for children, and the "zero-zero-one strategy" for adults.

Money Versus Health: the Yasuni Story

In 2007 Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, sponsored the Yasuni Initiative to end oil prospecting in the vast Yasuni National Park, thereby preventing some 400 million tonnes of carbon emissions, if the international community or the United Nations would compensate Ecuador for half of the unrealised oil revenues (an estimated 13 billion dollars over 13 years).

Syria Report Reveals Crimes Against Humanity

In conflict-ridden Syria, both government forces and  rebels have committed crimes against humanity concludes the latest report  by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

Crocs and Humans Clash in Shrinking Space

Twenty two-year-old Ajay Kallu, hailing from the Bakultala village in northern Andamans, was devoured by an estuarine crocodile when he waded waist deep into a creek to fish on the morning of Aug. 1, marking the fifth fatal crocodile attack in 28 months in the remote Islands that lie at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

Civil Society Squeezed on All Sides

A year and a half after the international wake-up call of the Arab Spring uprisings, the room for civil society organisations is being increasingly constricted across the globe, experts in Washington warned on Tuesday.

Drug War Threatens Democracy, Mexican Peace Caravan Warns in US

"The war on drugs is endangering the best thing that the United States has given the world: democracy,” Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet who heads the movement of victims of the violence unleashed by the war on drugs in his country, said upon reaching the United States this week.

Gaddafi Loyalists Up In Arms

The security situation in Libya remains tense as violence by way of car bombings, political assassinations of high-ranking government and military officials, attacks on foreign diplomatic staff and NGOs, and young men sorting out minor disputes with AK-47s continues unabated.

Lean Times Get Leaner in Northern Cote d’Ivoire

Salimata Coulibaly, director of a medical centre in the town of Korhogo in the northern Cote d’Ivoire region of Savanes, stood before a chart displaying before-and-after photos of local children – one taken when each child arrived at the centre, and one after he or she responded to treatment for malnutrition.

Drug War Threatens Democracy, Mexican Peace Caravan Warns in US

“The war on drugs is endangering the best thing that the United States has given the world: democracy,” Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet who heads the movement of victims of the violence unleashed by the war on drugs in his country, said upon reaching the United States this week.

Biopolymers and the Dream of a Green Petrochemical Industry

Brazil leads global production of biopolymers, an industry that generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel-based plastic manufacture. But “green plastics” made from sugarcane have a sour aftertaste.

Reining in Private Security Faces Regulatory Thicket

Alleged human rights violations and other challenges involving the use of Private Military Security Contractors (PMSCs) have sparked a series of international efforts to create systems of accountability for an increasingly complex transnational industry.

U.S.: Republican Ticket Shrugs Off Foreign Policy Experience

With less than three months to go before the U.S. presidential election, over the weekend Barack Obama’s Republican challenger for the presidency, Mitt Romney, finally announced his vice-presidential running mate, a young member of Congress named Paul Ryan.

Plant Diseases Threaten Food Security in Kivu, DR Congo

Plant diseases affecting bananas and cassava are gaining ground in two provinces in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to South Kivu's provincial minister for agriculture, Gisèle Batembo.

Biopolymers and the Dream of a Green Petrochemical Industry

Brazil leads global production of biopolymers, an industry that generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel-based plastic manufacture. But "green plastics" made from sugarcane have a sour aftertaste.

Q&A: Military Action in Mali Would Be a ‘Huge Risk’

Military action by West African states against the insurrection in northern Mali would be extremely risky without diplomatic support from neighbouring Algeria and Mauritania, according to International Crisis Group researcher Gilles Yabi.

Fighting Against Soldiering

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men, women and children have been demonstrating in Jerusalem against the Israeli government’s move to make military service mandatory for members of their community.

Children Treated as Lab Rats

Four-year-old Deepak Yadav, a mentally disabled boy from Indore city in the Indian state Madhya Pradesh, was being treated for stomach problems at Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, a government hospital for children attached to the M. G. M. Medical College.